Being the Millennial and culture disputer that I am (labeled), I cut the cord to cable over five years ago. Over the years, however, I have accumulated profiles on Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, CBS, HBO, and Amazon Prime. Despite all of this, I still spend a majority of my time watching free content on YouTube.
While I am not one that follows the beauty community of YouTube, occasionally some of their drama seeps into my recommendations and I tune in. Like a car crash, you can't look away at some of the horrors. Last year, there was a video that went viral after one large YouTube beauty guru publicly shamed and separated from the most subscribed-to beauty guru on the platform. One year later, she apologized in a lengthy video explaining how her thoughts and actions were influenced by two other large personalities on the platform, one of which, Shane Dawson, has been facing severe backlash for disgusting acts published in videos from his past.
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While I don't want to get into the topic itself, watching commentary videos on the subject made me consider points raised in our most recent assignment. The later activities of networked knowledge, brokering, negotiating, and constructing are all demonstrated in this community. There are what appear to be thousands, if not millions, of users discussing theories, facts, and opinions in the comment section of commentary videos and on other social media platforms. Creators dedicated to providing commentary on these occurrences then take the information negotiated in their comment sections and information seen in tweets and create a new video constructing the new knowledge. These creators and viewers co-construct knowledge despite no statements from involved parties and present this as new information. This new "information" can lead to very split parties calling for influencers to be "canceled" or for others to boycott their products and unsubscribe from their social media channels.
In my opinion, I feel that cancel culture for problematic personalities is often more performative than long-lasting. They seem to fall out of favor for awhile, lay low, and then return relatively unscathed. This cultural phenomenon leaking into the lives of everyday people, especially younger audiences, I feel could culminate in a perfect storm so to speak. Online personalities often have teams to shield them or other avenues to pursue. What happens to a young teen when he or she falls out of favor with those in his or her circle? Damaging information could spread and severe bullying could ensue that cause teens to act out or worse.
People should be held accountable for problematic actions, but does this obsession with "canceling" powerful people for a short time harm the psyche of audiences? Do platforms such as YouTube exacerbate the way people learn in a negative way or is it similar to the effects of cable reality programming?
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