We’ve all seen the embarrassing online apologies: the notes app explanations, the ukeleles, the very obvious practiced speech.
So, why do we continue to ask for apologies from influencers, even when we know they don’t really mean it?
Cancel culture doesn’t do anyone any good. Yes, the influencer might apologize for their actions and move on, but nobody else does. They’re still trolling the influencer’s comment sections, condemning them for their actions and inevitably still giving them attention they desired in the first place.
Let’s consider James Charles. He had an insane media presence in the late 2010’s, but struggled for years to remain relevant. One viral video he took in Disney recently made him a meme again, giving him the traction he had been chasing for years since he first went viral.
People have even begun to change their minds on social media, asking why he was ever hated in the first place.
“Almost every influencer has been cancelled at some point. They do something controversial and then everyone forgets about it after like a week, and it makes cancelling them pretty much pointless,” said freshman student Gabrielle Walsh
This year, Cierra from Love Island was also under fire for using a racist slur in an old TikTok post.
At first, everyone in her comment section left hateful comments, urging her to apologize for her actions. However, only four months later, people are now beginning to feel bad for her and saying she has paid her dues and no longer deserves hate.
What was the point of “canceling” her?Who decides when it has been a sufficient amount of time for her to be hated on and bullied?
TikTok content creator Chris Olsen said it best: “Cancel culture doesn’t work because people love it too much. It has become a form of entertainment.”
TikTok’s internet trolls sit back and wait for someone to go viral, dig up dirty secrets or slip ups from when they were 14 years old, and then hold it over their head until the next person messes up.
It’s no longer a form of accountability. It’s just something fun for (unemployed) people with parasocial relationships to do every now and then.
According to findapsychologist.org, parasocial relationships are one-sided, and occur between one person who is deeply emotionally invested, while the other has no idea the person exists.
With the rise of social media influencers and the concept of “authenticity” in the media, parasocial relationships are thriving more than ever.
However, what your every day TikTok or Instagram user seems to forget is that they have no idea who that person truly is or what they stand for. They remove the humanity from the person, replacing it with this idolatry and raising their expectations for how that person should act.
Yes, cancelling someone can be great for accountability purposes. Someone who is consistently hateful or does not deserve fame should be removed from the public eye. But the art of “cancel culture” has become less about responsibility and more about amusement.
Rather than going around digging for dirt on someone in the public eye, I think it’s time we go outside, touch some grass and focus on ourselves.
Hannah Valdivia
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