There are a lot of things Gen Z is known for and one of them is the practice of cancel culture. 

What is cancel culture? “Canceling” is typically done to someone that expresses views that the vast majority doesn’t agree with. More often than not, something negative or harmful is pulled from someone’s past,usually from social media and put on the front page. This can be a statement made from years ago or something more recent.  Cancel culture is where people ban together with one central dislike for someone, typically online, and “cancel” them. This can be done by unfollowing on social media, leaving hateful messages or disengaging from that person’s platform. 

More extreme notions of canceling someone involve inciting or conflicting violence upon someone due to the strong negative emotions towards that person. This can be done by leaving hate messages, death threats or people going out of their way to make that person take accountability by urging a public apology or stepping down from a position or field. 

According to psychologytoday.com this can result in many outcomes, “getting them fired, shaming them, ruining their reputation or in more private ways, threatening them through email.” The main objective is to publicly shame and bring awareness to the matter. 

Canceling someone or feeling the urge to stems from a psychological reason. 

“An individual act of canceling is psychological rejection. When it is communicated through social media and joined in by other individuals who feel the same way or are looking for an ‘outrage fix,’ canceling spreads like a contagion, amplifying the harm to the canceled entity,” according to psyschologytoday.com. 

Most people that indulge in cancel culture tend to undermine that they’re attacking an actual person. I think it has to do with the majority of the cancel culture taking place online and it’s hard to envision a person’s feeling or well-being. Some people even go as far as to dox people and put people in immediate danger. This proves that it’s not truly about people taking accountability but more about inflicting irreversible damage to the person. 

After explaining the term more, I want to dive into why it is not productive or helpful to society in any way, and how ironically cancel culture sets us back. 

If you think back to your childhood through early adult years, we can all think of something we said or did that does not represent our character today. It’s part of growing and learning from our mistakes. If everything incorrect or harmful from decades ago was constantly used against the people we are today, we would be a stagnant society. A comment made years ago does not reflect an individual  today. 

We are human, and with that follows an abundance of flaws. It is not fair or indicative of a progressive society to use past remarks, statements, or beliefs against the character of who someone is today. With that being said, I hope the eradication of cancel culture takes place soon and people continue educating themselves and growing as intellectual human beings. 

If we do that, it stunts growth and does not allow for someone to learn and become a better person. I am not the same person as a year ago, let alone from 10 years ago. 

Cancel culture is extremely toxic.  According to shiftfrequency.com, “Cancel culture is regressive, not progressive — and we can project where it will take us by understanding the past and what has happened to other societies and nations that adopted such practices.”