Over the past few years, social media has grown in popularity with thousands of new creators joining daily. However, a new culture has been forming into a common occurrence over all platforms, destroying content creators’ careers in its path: cancel culture.  

  “Cancel culture is a group of people banning together and attempting to remove the platform of someone who they believe does not deserve their platform,” Kelly Fitzgerald, senior, said.  

  Social media has given many content creators the ability to reach hundreds of thousands of people through the screen. However, the people who help build these creators’ platforms can easily take them away by creating a mass movement of hate against them.  

  “Uncovering past actions that a person of power has purposefully hidden and calling them out on these actions often leads to the end or a massive downfall in their career,” Kaitlyn Pillion, senior, said.  

 Although participation in this culture may seem innocent, the action of canceling a person’s career has a massive impact.  

  “I feel like cancel culture as a whole does more harm than good. Ending someone’s entire career and some cases livelihood over certain unwanted behaviors doesn’t make the person stop these behaviors. Instead, holding a person accountable is a better way of handling the situation,” Salem Trajceska, senior, said.   

  Reasons for canceling a person can extend from posts dating years back in the past. Many people will scour the internet in search for these offensive posts just to tarnish a person’s career in the present day.  

 “Mistakes that have been made recently (in the past five years) should be canceled if there is proof of these actions. Anything more than that just isn’t justifiable; over time people change and can better themselves,” Trajceska said. 

  Instead of spreading hate onto a person for the mistakes they have made, many fans decide to overall stop supporting creators rather than trying to bring down their entire career.  

  “I’ve definitely stopped supporting certain celebrities because of questionable actions. I stop supporting them after they have committed the acts because it goes against my own morals. It is difficult and disappointing, but it has also reminded me that my perception of them doesn’t always reflect who they actually are,” Pillion said.  

  Cancel culture affects everyone on social media. It doesn’t matter what age or gender a person is on social media, nobody is safe from being canceled.  

 “Everyone should be held to some level of accountability, despite age. However, a fifteen-year-old would have more room to change and improve themselves compared to a fifty-year-old,” Fitzgerald said.