Cancel culture exists and is growing along with the widespread use of social media. This culture “cancels” or boycotts someone from a public platform because of a mistake they’ve made. In general, cancel culture means to stop providing support for one’s actions or career. Scandals and controversial news threaten public individuals who hold crucial positions in public. Even if the public figure has apologized, a culture of cancel culture can emerge when the public figure makes a mistake or says something incorrect.
Someone makes a mistake, the public realizes it, the public voices and spreads that person’s mistake (usually by using social media), then it can effectively affect their career. For most people, this culture is considered effective in holding the guilty party to that person. This collective action is considered as an important social justice tool to combat parties with high bargaining power and position.
The act of embarrassing someone for making a mistake is believed to decrease the probability of them repeating their behavior. The cancel culture, on the other hand, is similar to the bullying culture.
Cancel culture is shown to divide society into two camps: right and wrong. This culture promotes people to have a hard time forgiving others, which produces a climate that prevents people from changing and learning from their mistakes.
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