Think Piece: Digital Natives and Cancel Culture
This week in another one of my doctoral classes, we got into a conversation on "cancel culture." To avoid giving too much context on "cancel culture" and some of its roots and events, check out this article from the New York Times on "cancel culture". While becoming very common language on social media platforms, "cancelling"someone or something often occurs after something problematic or troubling takes place.
"In a subscription-heavy era where everything is on-demand, and celebrities are packaged and sold as commodities, the language of cancellation is close at hand" (Bromwich, 2018 [author of linked NYTimes article]).
In reflecting on this new cancel culture, I reflected on the added complexity of digital natives taking this phenomenon over and repurposing it to fit their digital needs. "Cancelling someone" often comes after they do something problematic. While it can see seen as a good ethical compass to notice these instances (see earlier post on ethics and digital natives), is cancelling the new solution rather than education?
Digital natives, as coined by Prensky (2001), refers to an "ever-growing group of children, adolescents, and nowadays young adults (i.e., those born after 1984; the official beginning of this generation) who have been immersed in digital technologies all their lives" (Kirschner & Bruyckere, 2017, p. 136). These digital natives are finding their way to these online spaces younger and younger, which often correlates to them forming their identity intertwined with their online presence. When I was growing up as a child, if I said something hurtful to someone during my lunch period, they might be upset with me but we would work it out together. I was often given grace that something I said that was hurtful was not a testament to my character. I would learn. I would develop. I would do better next time. I was not "cancelled."
Now, as more and more digital natives form their identities and relationships online, I fear that they put themselves online, an immortal space, before they have had a chance to develop and learn what is appropriate to share in these spaces. As seen in the Times article linked above, celebrities that are fully developed, aged, and have multi-million dollar public relations teams have still shared content online that has had them "cancelled." What about a middle schooler? What risk do they run of being met with intense rejection online when they share a photo from a family holiday? What risk do we take with strangers on the internet influencing the way they learn to interact with others? The immense influence of the internet is incomprehensible to many and incredibly intertwined with the identity formation of young digital natives. So this week, I reflect on the toxicity of "cancel culture" and digital natives who have their critical identity development happen with internet trolls and cyberbullies.
Lots of critical questionssszzz! I love it. Your blog post reminded me of the weekly discussion as cancel culture was shared as an example of hive mind, as an example of how people form collectives and act based on their collective embodiment. I'm glad that you mentioned the role of the internet on youth and identity formation. That's a very interesting topic to learn more. While I'm totally with you in raising wonderful critical questions (What risk do they run of being met with intense rejection online when they share a photo from a family holiday? What risk do we take with strangers on the internet influencing the way they learn to interact with others?) and highly support identifying these aspects, sometimes I feel like only looking at 'risks' 'dangers' already positions one (e.g., a teacher, a researcher, a policy maker, etc.) in that way which may only result in seeing them that way. Sometimes, I feel like we should be telling not only risks or celebrities or whoever they're, but also include better stories. What if, for instance, that youth is learning to navigate online, what if that youth just tries to explore who she, he is, they are, etc., hence learning. Also how safe they're offline? Keep bringing these perspectives, made me have a conversation with my own position! :)
ReplyDeleteBDevies, you should check out Dan's blog, she shared some interesting and surprising statistics regarding cyber-bullying- it compliments your blog nicely. I think you bring up some very good and interesting points about how dangerous it can be for teenagers to navigate their formative years online in this vast (and somewhat unsecured) digital landscape. I think that parents need better tools and resources to help their children in this scenario, I would imagine that it is incredibly hard for a parent to help their children when they are unaware of the apps and tech that their child is using. I am around teenagers all of the time (as a high school teacher) and they always surprise me with which app they are using, I cannot keep up with how quickly things change, and I would imagine that parents are even more outdated than I am.
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