If you have been present in any way on social media, you may have heard of the term “canceled”. The term itself has taken off in the last couple of years and had been coined as a term of power. The mob mentality of “canceling” has had serious effects over said “canceled” person’s life, all with just the press of a button. One tweet is all that’s needed to send an angry mob knocking on your door.

It seems no one is immune to being called out, shamed, mobbed, or canceled for their current or past views, behavior, slip-ups, and so on, on the internet.

So, what exactly is “being canceled”? This is when an individual or a group of people decides to stop supporting a person, company, or thing based on a negative action or event that has taken place, no matter at what time. Even though “cancel culture” may help expose problematic or criminal behavior, more often than not, it’s just attacking people for making a mistake and not giving them any kind of chances for redemption or forgiveness even after apologizing.

This whole “trend” started with calling out celebrities, but in recent times companies, as well as influencers have been under attack. Here are just some examples of people or companies that have been canceled in the past:

• Kevin Hart for homophobic tweets from 2009, for which he apologized and explained his mindset has changed a lot since then;

• H&M for their controversial photoshoot with an African boy in a monkey shirt, for which they apologized and took down;

• Johnny Depp for the domestic-abuse allegations (Yikes, the Internet sure had that one wrong);

• James Charles scandal for being a sexual predator towards straight boys. Everyone was quick to attack him on social media and cancel him without any solid proof (to this day there still isn’t any).

And the list goes on and on.

The big question is “Is cancel culture for the better or for worse?” Even though it may have some positives like calling out sexual predators like Harvey Weinstein, most of the time its people drawing fast assumptions and pointing a finger at someone. Cancel culture is teaching people that if someone does something wrong, that’s it, you stop supporting them. Forget if they apologize or correct their behavior or it was a misunderstanding. Sounds wrong, right? Imagine all the times you made a mistake, what if the people around you hadn’t given you a second chance?

At the end of the day, cancel culture is toxic for our mental health. We as a society sometimes forget that we are all human. And being human means making mistakes. Celebrities, influencers, and companies are living in fear with the chance that something they said 20 years ago as a teenager or at the beginning of their work may resurface and ruin their whole career and life. Cancel culture doesn’t allow us to be human, to make mistakes, learn from them, grow, forgive, and be understanding. I am not saying people should be let off the hook if they have done something wrong or problematic. However, we should give them a lesson, show them what they did wrong and at least give them a chance to better themselves. If they don’t, that’s on them and they will take on the consequences.

In this time of negativity let’s try our best to be positive, as well as keep our humanity in a world where it is slowly fleeting. Let’s learn to forgive!