Cancel Culture
DML 3: Lamia, Tim, Noah
“Recent survey findings suggest that youth under twenty-five are more often recruited for civic or political activities online than through other methods and when compared to their older counterparts.”(Kahn 4). Civic participation through social media has created a culture full of like-minded individuals who partake in “cancelling” or boycotting individuals that have done/taken politically incorrect actions or offensive actions overall. These offenses can range from interest targeted, racial, political, etc. This culture that has been created within the past few years has been known to social media users as cancel culture.
Cancel culture is a rising movement that can be considered to be civic practice. There are varying opinions on this newly formed culture as to determine whether it is effective and of actual value. Members of cancel culture argue that cancelling someone can help them recognize their mistakes. It demonstrates that because of the action that was taken many lives were impacted and therefore it is considered justice for that group of people. Others argue that there is no point to cancelling someone unless they have learned from their mistakes or that cancel culture may be too harsh.
Cancel Culture has become so prominent that the original purpose of cancelling someone seems to be diminishing. Social media users state that the movement was originally to raise awareness to the target individual about their mistake. However, now it has either become a way for people to justify “bullying” or to gain clout and be “woke”. We interviewed several individuals to collect data on differing opinions from various backgrounds and see how they feel about this newly formed culture:
Interview with a member of the Kpop community:
1.Do you take part in cancel culture or know someone that does? :
no not really-I know a few twitter users that do
2. What is your opinion about cancel culture?
Honestly, I hate it. It’s pretty harsh and a stupid concept that people genuinely find as the best solution
3. What does it mean to be cancelled to you?
To me- uh I honestly have no idea. But in general if it means to stop supporting that person/business or boycotting, similar concepts tbh. But I think it’s more harsh because they include threats rather than just simply being unsupportive
5. Do you think cancel culture has value?
I do think it’s effective, but in the wrong ways. Positively, not really. Sure it humiliates them, but cancel culture is just a collective agreement to bully someone basically. Despite many people participating in it, I genuinely think it’s the worst way to humble someone or put them in their place.
6. Do you think apologizing makes up for an action someone did?
yes and no. It can make for everything, but it shows they understand the wrong. They’re still held accountable for their actions, it doesn't dismiss what they did entirely. Some apologies are terrible and you can tell it is, but they still understood what was in the fault.
The Kpop community is famous amongst twitter to be a powerful participatory culture that is quick to put people in their place. The personal interests of these individuals causes them to practice their civic duties in order to educate not only members of their own community but also ‘locals’. Many people would say these fans are not to be messed with because of their brutality as well as their numbers.
Another Interview was done with an active Twitter user:
I am very well aware of cancel culture, and I hate how it’s handled. As nicely as I can put it, I think cancel culture is a terrible thing because it literally can ruin people’s lives over things they’ve done in the past, no matter how small or big it is. It seems as if the concept of people changing doesn’t exist to the people that engage in cancel culture and it’s sad to see. I mostly see cancel culture on Twitter. I think it’s effective at bringing attention to the issues people have with someone’s actions, but it can be incredibly ineffective at the same time because of the damage it can do to someone’s mental health and how it seems to have accomplished nothing except get an apology from the party(s) in question. It also is ineffective because the cancel culture mob seems pretty spastic and will go after everyone and everything, talk about it for 1–3 days, and then find something else to get mad at. I wouldn’t want an alternative, but rather an adjustment of cancel culture. I would rather keep the aspect of someone coming forward with something, but have the adjustment be that everyone looks at it with a grain of salt and wait for the facts from all sides to come out before action was taken (although I think that’s wishful thinking knowing the internet and how incredible harsh it can be), and also leave the verdict to the people above the party(s) in question. There also should be some sort of basic rules or ethics when it comes to calling someone out. Gotta define the Harvey Weinstein’s from the 13 year old edgy kids who said the n word for attention. Apologizing for getting called out by the cancel culture mob feels ingenuous and forced because they’re trying to save face. Just an apology won’t cut it, rather an apology and actions by the party(s) can show they can change (although they could also just say this to get the mob off their back.)
In analyzing these two interviews we come to a conclusion that people are wary of this culture and are not in full support of it. That then sparked us to dive deeper into the psychology behind cancel culture. According to an article on Psychology Today, “ Social canceling is the collective public rejection of a person, group, or organization for a perceived transgression that spreads through social media and is marked by strong negative emotional reactions and the pursuit of visible punitive actions.” ( 11). Social cancelling, another term for cancel culture, is driven by negative emotions or a bias regarding an opinion. Would cancelling cancel culture then make it restrictive on freedom of speech? It can go both ways. It can support the victim that is being cancelled because it shows that people have a low tolerance for freedom of expression or speech. It can go in favor of the cancelled too because they too are allowed to use their freedoms. Since this is the case, cancel culture can also be categorized as civic participation. “ Through shared civic practices, members of affinity networks lower barriers to entry and multiply opportunities for young people to engage in civic and political action. “(Ito). In the case of cancel culture youth are voicing their opinions and targeting transgression in order to have a politically stable society. We need civic participation in order to change and progress as a society. Does that then justify the harsh actions that are sometimes taken in cancel culture? We decided to take a look at previous examples of cancelled individuals, particularly focusing on celebrities and politicians.
Doja Cat
According to The Flare, “ On May 22, videos of the singer interacting with people in racist, incel chatrooms emerged on social media. This news not only prompted people to be royally pissed off, but to recall earlier instances of racism involving Doja Cat, like her 2015 song “Dindu Nuffin.” Pretty soon #DojaCatIsOverParty started trending on Twitter, with the singer finally issuing an apology on May 24.” (1). Furthermore, the article begins to state their opinion on the issue and on cancel culture in general stating, “ For the record, “cancelling” a person — as in, culturally blocking someone from having a prominent public platform or career or contributing anything to society after a misstep — can be pretty toxic. Not only does it disallow people from engaging in discussion and learning or growing from their mistakes, but it also firmly places people in a dichotomy of “good” and “bad,” without any room for nuance, or taking into account that people aren’t defined by one mistake.”(2). Although this article may sound biased based on how they feel about cancel culture, later on social media found out that Doja Cat was in fact innocent. According to an article by The Insider, “ After the alleged Tinychat videos began to circulate, counter-threads began to emerge on Twitter claiming that the chatroom Doja Cat had visited was not racist. Others posted screenshots that they said depicted conversations with people who had been in the Tinychat room and said that Doja Cat had not said anything racist.” (Haasch). This is a prime example of social media wrongfully cancelling a public figure.
Wonho (ex. Monsta X member)
Former Monsta x (A popular South Korean boy group) member, Wonho, had departed from the group after false drug allegations and a mistake he had made during a fansign event. During the event a fan had asked him a question to which he jokingly replied “me too, me too”. At this time, the “me too” movement was on the rise. Unfortunately, the joke the star had made, seemed to fans that he was mocking the movement. However, this wasn’t the idol’s intention at all since he isn’t a fluent English speaker. The member was cancelled over this joke and forced to terminate the contract.
Sebastian Stan
Sebastian Stan was cancelled over a resurfaced image of his girlfriend. “The controversy appears to have started on Twitter when user angelas550 shared a screenshot of a photo of Alejandra who is dressed in what looks like a Japanese Geisha outfit, alongside a friend who is dressed in a similar way. The caption that accompanied the photo, according to the screenshot, was “Asian night.” (Mcguinnes, Devin). The reason why Sebastian was dragged into being cancelled was his lack of response over the comments asking him to address the issue. The star also then later blocked the fan who had exposed his girlfriend causing even more of an uproar.
Donald J. Trump
Who could forget the 45th President of the United States, Trump. There are various reasons why Mr. Trump was cancelled such as bigotry, racist comments, and overall policies that the figure created. His responses to these comments of disapproval didn’t help his case. Many would argue that he had split the country because of how divided America had become regarding opinions. Policies such as the wall, the Muslim ban, and several others had earned a massive amount of “cancellations’. It reached even to the point of questioning whether or not to impeach Mr. Trump.
The experiment:
After analyzing our research and finding different results we decided to take our own approach. We want to see if it is possible to convince individual Twitter users that are a part of cancel culture to think more rationally about what and who deserves to be cancelled. Using examples of both celebrities that have been wrongfully cancelled and celebrities that were cancelled and how cancel culture has affected them today, we decided to tweet daily to see how split up Twitter was over the people cancelled, and why/ why not was it justified to be cancelled. Our goal is to persuade social media users into thinking more rationally about their actions and practicing their civics rather than following a movement blindly.
IFTT
Works Cited
authors, All, et al. “Learning Connected Civics: Narratives, Practices, Infrastructures.” Taylor & Francis, www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/03626784.2014.995063.
Dholakia, Utpal M. “What Is Cancel Culture?” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, 27 July 2020, www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-science-behind-behavior/202007/what-is-cancel-culture.
Lankshear, Colin, and Michele Knobel. New Literacies Everyday Practices and Social Learning. Open University Press, 2011.
Smith, Aaron. “Civic Engagement in the Digital Age.” Pew Research Center: Internet, Science & Tech, Pew Research Center, 28 Aug. 2020, www.pewresearch.org/internet/2013/04/25/civic-engagement-in-the-digital-age/.
