Cancel Culture
By: Missionary Team
Ok, so this could go one of two ways; I could say that Cancel Culture is purely a product of America’s culturized individualism and self-indulgent philosophy that has been taught to every generation in new and less subtle ways with each wave of technological advances. Orrrrr I could blame teenagers for being selfish and narrow-minded creatures by nature. But I don’t like either of those options. So instead, I am going to do my best to look at the thing that “cancel culture” is and what the impact is in real life without resorting to either of those arguments. I am not an expert in, well, anything really -especially not social media -however, I am still a teenager. As a teenager in 2021, social media has played a big role in my life growing up. I have experienced the different ways social media has become essential in almost everyone’s everyday life. For example, my high school friends and I would spend at least an hour planning and replanning what to post, when and where, what to say, and who to tag, and all the things that go into posting a selfie on Instagram when you’re 14. I remember the nagging need to constantly check throughout the day if I had been sent a message at all, if anyone new liked my post from yesterday, or if any of my friends posted so I could like it first. It would be presumptuous of me to say I know everything people use the internet for.
What I can say is that a high percentage of people use social media for nothing more than to keep in touch with friends and family with photos, videos, and stories. I have seen that there is a much smaller percentage of people who have found social media to be a career and full-time job, earning their living wage. But no matter the reason, those who are on social media daily, have invested themselves in this virtual world in one way or another. Yes, every teenager has insecurities. I am pretty sure you’re a psychopath if you have never been embarrassed by anything you posted on social media when you were 13. As time has gone on, I have seen how social media can be used to replace a person's very identity. Yes, we all know how ‘fake’ our accounts can be, and how they can mask who we are physically, mentally, and emotionally. But I have seen a growing number of people I know, and strangers, become so invested in their online lives, that they have become quite lost in social media. A big part of our society has moved into a virtual world, especially with the pandemic keeping everyone so far away. Social media has become a huge gift to the world, it offers the opportunity to communicate with those who may be far away in various ways. Only now, we have a dangerous situation on our hands.
We as a whole (I know I am generalizing, but I am kind of right...) have a lot invested in our online presence and appearances. What is to stop one or a hundred of us to rely too much on this profile identity? I know I do this way too often. We can lose sight of where our worth comes from very fast. It is something that puts us at risk; we make ourselves vulnerable when we reduce ourselves to what's on our screen. Now here is where “canceling” comes in. We have all heard of it; it may have even become part of our daily humor. But there has been a negative culture growing with this. The ability to destroy a person by destroying their online identity. It is too easy for a person to end someone's career, social status, or reputation by calling on the internet to ‘cancel’ them. This is dismissive of the human being that is behind the social media account. Since we have reduced ourselves to pixelated profiles, we have become as disposable as the accounts we make. We have no more substance than our timelines. How easy it is to blow us away and forget the people we are when we have chosen to put ourselves where we are now. Yes, I believe that at the heart of this “cancel culture” is a dismissive spirit that speaks to the impatience that grows from our generation of instant gratification. But I also believe that there is even more danger than just rude teenagers here. I believe that this speaks to a larger movement happening today, the reduction of ourselves, to what is seen through a camera and microphone.
I know we have all heard it more than we want to, that we are more than our likes or shares. Yet there is a bigger part of us invested here that we cannot deny. Our world needs the internet to keep our families together, even during the holidays, our schools in session, and our jobs connected. It is a whack world to live in now, but it is our reality. And it is undeniable that social media is a blessing. But it so easily can turn into the enemy. It has become a battlefield in many ways, where the free speech and opinions of one person, can result in their virtual ‘death by firing squad’. What are we becoming, that we as a society will willingly ignore and throw away a person, and all they are worth, over something said on the internet? Is there truth in this? Or am I rambling for no reason at all? I believe there is a truth to the statement: that we are allowing this negative and even dangerous trend, to tear us further apart from one another than the Corona Virus ever will.
