#Canceled

• Sweaty water bottles
• People who go to concerts without knowing the band
• Privacy screen protectors 
• People who commit to D3 colleges and brag about it
• No-show socks
• Hello Kitty
• Shein 
• Diet Pepsi
• Shakespeare
• Essentials hoodies
• Velveeta mac and cheese
• Flip flops (Old Navy especially) 

Have you ever hated something, and I mean really hated it? Personally, I hate a lot of things. And while a lot of people would suggest I see a therapist, I have a better solution — canceling things. 

Cancel culture, in the wise words of Urban Dictionary, is an internet phenomenon in which people shun others from social media. To me, Cancel Culture is when a group of people decide that there’s enough reason to hate someone or something because of their history. For example, Kanye West, Shane Dawson, Jeffree Star, James Charles, Ellen Degenres and Kevin Hart are all people who have been canceled in recent years, along with brands such as Balenciaga, Yeezy and Aunt Jemima. The cancellation of brands and celebrities is beneficial because it cuts off all support for them, loosing them money, which is necessary for them to be punished for what they did. 

Canceling major brands or celebrities can be positive because it blocks their influence from spreading to younger generations. This reminds me of when Andrew Tate, an extremely misogynistic influencer, was sent to jail and essentially disappeared from social media. He spread false ideas, saying men were made better than women. For some reason, young guys believed him. Maybe it’s because he looks like an off brand Pitbull or because he apparently drives a Bugatti, but either way I was flabbergasted by his whole persona. 

Canceling these people is valuable to social media because it shows influencers that their wrong-doings will not be excused because of their position in society. I used to hate it when an A-list celebrity would seriously mess up, but they had a certain amount of Twitter followers, so it was totally fine. Kind of like how celebrities and regular people are treated differently for everyday things. For example, if I oversleep, my mom calls me lazy, but when Paris Hilton does it’s called “self-care.” I’m sure if I told my teacher that I missed the first hour because I was doing some “self-care” I would not be treated like an icon.

Cancel culture is crucial and beneficial in forcing people to take responsibility for what they’ve done wrong. It stands against the idea that anything celebrities do is excusable because of their powerful influence, while also encouraging growth. That being said, I know there’s plenty of other things in society that should be fixed (or outright eliminated), so here’s my list of random things that NEED to be canceled.