“But go off, I guess.”
Those were the words I typed. I made an ill-timed joke. We’ve all been there, tried to play off a disagreement to avoid an argument. What follows is usually all the same; an awkward silence, nervous laughter, thinking about the moment again and again even though you can’t go back and change what happened. The internet is forever, but I never really thought about it until those words led to a slew of people attacking me online. The person I was arguing with and I have long since settled our differences, but that doesn’t change the huge number of people online who still think I’m petty and argumentative. I didn’t know it then, but I had been cancelled.
Cancel culture, also known as call-out culture, refers to the act of publicly shaming people (generally celebrities) for actions deemed inappropriate by society. Everyone who’s anyone has been cancelled—from Woody Allen who was cancelled for being a sexual predator to James Charles who said he would get Ebola in Africa.
And it’s good to hold our idols accountable for doing things that are illegal or morally unacceptable. We don’t want to stan people who purposefully do bad things. But when it comes to everyday people making small mistakes, they should be allowed to learn from their slip-ups instead of living in fear of being publicly humiliated for them. With respect to saying things that stem from misunderstanding or lack of education, individuals should be allowed to own up to their mistakes and know better for the future.
Desperately wanting to call someone out for the clout or the title of being “woke” breeds fear and dysfunction on the internet. Instead of seeking to “expose” each other online, we should be helping each other grow together.
If someone is doing something problematic, they are much more likely to respond well to an explanation of why they should change what they’re doing rather than a group of people attacking them online for something they do not understand is wrong. This works to create an internet culture of education and greater understanding instead of a vicious place where people are afraid to speak their minds in fear of being wrong.