Social media continuously allows people to voice their opinions about anything. Naturally, when disclosing a personal opinion, people are inclined to make theirs known. Learning how to deal with people’s disagreements is a vital part of functioning in society. Everyone is entitled to their opinions and it is up to us to choose how we respond. However, that does not mean we should allow people to say anything they want if it’s detrimental to another’s well-being. Accountability plays a major role in becoming a better person and learning from mistakes.
Cancel culture is participating in mass canceling to express disapproval and apply social pressure. Canceling tends to be done by methods of unfollowing influencers or boycotting celebrities by not streaming their albums or movies. People tend to get canceled for political views, racism, sexism, or ableism.
Cancel culture is both effective and ineffective. It is effective because celebrities will apologize and stop doing whatever it is they were canceled for, but it is ineffective because in the long run, everyone will forget about what happened. That being said, even if celebrities do not apologize for their actions, it will usually not harm them, allowing them to repeat the same mistakes with no long-term consequences. These people will not learn from their mistakes and will take advantage of people’s forgiveness to continue their negative actions or words.
A great example of ineffective cancel culture would be Mark Wahlberg. When Wahlberg was 16 years old, he committed a hate crime against two Asian men. Wahlberg was jailed for this crime, but most people either do not know about it or have forgotten about it entirely. Despite this hate crime, Wahlberg has had a successful acting career and has played major roles in hit movies; this depicts how even though he assaulted two men, people still respect this man and look up to him although he was a criminal.
On the other hand, a good example of effective cancel culture would be Amber Heard. Heard is an actress and model with successful movie roles, such as her most popular role in Aquaman. She had a steady career until she wrote an article about how Johnny Depp abused her. Many people were worried for her at first because they believed her; however, Depp sued her for libel and defamation and provided solid evidence to prove that he was the one being abused.
During this time, Aquaman two was coming out and everyone was boycotting it because Heard was in it. The movie was not successful because of this boycott. Heard has not had much of a career since then. She is somewhat active on social media but has not starred in a major movie role since this incident.
Cancel culture wholeheartedly depends on the person and scenario. Both Heard and Wahlberg committed violent crimes, however, only one of the two had their career destroyed by the assault and abuse they committed. I think it is important to hold people accountable for their actions, even if they do not take it seriously, at least you still did the right thing.
