March 31, 2021
By Aidan Cabrera
Staff Writer
Cancel culture is a modern form of ostracism which is when people exclude others. Just recently a famous social figure Ellen DeGeneres was canceled for being rude to guests and staff on the show. Social media has given people a platform to “cancel” or humiliate others based on their background. This form of online shaming is criticized by many people on the internet, while others see it as comedy and a form of entertainment.
Junior Kyle Werner said he understands how cancel culture could have a positive output.
“Although it is generally bad, cancel culture has had some positive effects. There have been many cases of social media influencers using their power to groom their followers. Canceling these people is often the only way to stop them and spread awareness of their actions,” Werner said.
This does not happen very often as cancel culture seems to be negative in most cases, and many careers have been ruined with just a click of a button.
“There are definitely better ways to solve a problem. Communication is one of them. The affected party can talk to the offender and try to come to terms with what happened and get a genuine apology. Not every problem has to be blasted across social media,” Werner said.
Junior Emma Rodrigues said cancel culture is problematic.
“Cancel culture has achieved nothing but hate. People can have their lives completely destroyed, but the public who destroyed it doesn’t care at all,” Rodrigues said.
“There are definitely better ways to solve a problem. Communication is one of them. The affected party can talk to the offender and try to come to terms with what happened and get a genuine apology. Not every problem has to be blasted across social media.”
She said she sees cancel culture as a witch-hunt because it will seek out to destroy someone’s reputation and humiliate them.
“No one would want to be subjected to that kind of hate and public humiliation,” Rodrigues said.
She said it needs to be changed because it is unjust to slander someone who may not deserve it. She thinks it should be completely eliminated.
“I think the only way that cancel culture could benefit society is if it were to completely remove dangerous or horrible people from the public eye,” Rodrigues said.
Freshman Ethan Molina said he sees it as a phenomenon that can be improved upon because it is flawed.
“Cancel culture creates more issues not only for the person being canceled but for society as a whole,” Molina said.
He said he does not care about cancel culture overall because it never does what it is supposed to do.
“It has made the impression that people are supposed to be shunned by society instead of being taught how to fix their mistakes, which is wrong,” said Molina.
