#CANCELLED

“You’re cancelled.” 

If you don’t know what that means, you’re either too old or you don’t use Twitter.

In the case that you don’t have a Twitter, let me explain. Every week, you can count on a trending hashtag in the form of #[insert celebrity name]iscancelled. This celebrity could be getting "cancelled" for something that they said or even what they wore. It only takes one tweet to start the flood of hashtags.

Take Kevin Hart, who was announced to host the Oscars. People began digging up Hart’s tweets from over a decade ago, some of which were homophobic. Never mind the fact that these tweets were made at a time when the social climate was different from what it is today, or the fact that people change over time; it was decided that Kevin Hart was #cancelled.

He tried explaining that those tweets didn’t describe the person he was today, but no one wanted to listen. Hart ended up stepping down from hosting the Oscars.

It seems kind of wrong to use a decade-old tweet against someone like that. So then why is cancel culture a thing?

This could be explained by Shannon Valor, author of Social Networking Technology and the Virtues. She discusses whether social media makes it harder for people to develop certain virtues. Let’s take a look at how cancel culture is an example of this:

Patience: Twitter’s platform leaves no room for patience. A lot of times, someone will see a #cancelled tweet and would rather just retweet that than take the time to do their research and see if what they are retweeting is justified.

Honesty: In social media, people would rather seek validation than be honest. Online, there is no fear of accountability for what you say. People can jump on the bandwagon of a #cancelled hashtag without worrying about the repercussions.

Empathy: Valor says one of the most important preconditions for empathy is being in the presence of the other person. When Hart tried to defend himself, people who “cancelled” him might have found it easier to empathize with him if they were able to see him rather than just reading a tweet.

Like Valor says, an idea for future technology would be to make it easier for conditions to exist that would encourage the development of virtues. “Cancelling” will continue until people realize there are real lives that get affected.