By Faith Gonia
We teach the famous maxim to children from a young age. Explaining empathy in a comprehensible format, mentors instruct: “Try putting yourself in their shoes.”
Together, most of us grow up with the altruistic message in mind.
Nevertheless, the rise of social media has severed compassion in the online sphere, causing a disconnect between the user and the far-away individual on the screen. With every detail of one’s life publicly broadcasted, anonymous commenters scrutinize every perceived wrongdoing. The tweet from twelve years ago, the recent divorce (“OMG! He cheated on her?”) — each event from a celebrity’s life feeds the judgemental fire of their online audience. Cancel culture, the deemed term for the phenomenon, has spiraled out of control, destroying the lives of individuals who, in the vast majority, not only deserve a chance at forgiveness, but also a right to a little privacy. However expensive and out-of-touch one’s shoes might be, society should remember the valuable lesson from childhood — try walking in the (designer) shoes of a celebrity.
To hold a forty-year-old accountable for an action made by their eighteen-year-old self would condemn most middle-aged adults, not solely those in the public eye. Undeniably, no matter how benevolent they are, every individual has said or done something worth regretting; however, only a small portion of the population receives the unforgiving punishment of “cancellation.” We shun someone for an offhanded, decade-old comment, acting as if we have each obtained sainthood.
Apart from its baffling, “holier than thou” hypocrisy, cancel culture relies on publicizing the intimate, personal details of celebrities’ lives. If the average nonentity received the same invasion of privacy, they’d likely express outrage at such a blatant disregard for their confidential information. Nonetheless, participants in cancel culture take pleasure in naming the antagonist in a marriage they know nothing about, or speculating about an affair in a healthy relationship. Take, for example, the separation of John Mulaney and Anna Marie Tendler. When the famous comedian filed for divorce, media rushed to sell the narrative to the public. In a haste to shun Mulaney, former fans denounced his career and those who continued to support him. To them, I can only ask, would you like People Magazine to turn the most emotionally difficult time in your life into a grabbing headline?
Cancel culture actively demonstrates the loss of empathy in a social media-driven world. I urge cancelers to pause before selecting their next victim—put yourself in their shoes.