“Get your f***in’ ass up and work,” goes the proverb of the wisewoman Kim Kardashian. “It seems like no one wants to work these days.” Kim’s interview led to quite a lot of backlash. Some might even say she got canceled for it. But guess what? She’s still a billionaire and we’re the losers scrolling on Twitter.
Our generation, unlike Ms. Kardashian’s, fears that posting an opinion as curt as hers would spell social demise. We’re petrified of being “canceled.” This unsavory label — which has the power to take away friends, estrange family and change your whole life — has infiltrated our way of life. The phenomenon of cancel culture is a term that as much as 64 percent of the American Gen Z population is familiar with, according to PEW research studies.
Since the lockdown period of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have turned inward, joining communities online and taking solace in the digital world. According to the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, since the pandemic, there has been a 26 percent global increase in anxiety disorders. Despite quarantine orders being lifted, young people still aren’t in any shape for business as usual.
There are many think-pieces on how social media has affected Gen Z. Psychologist Jonathan Haidt even wrote a book, “The Anxious Generation,” about how social media and protective parenting have made Gen Z more, well, anxious. We don’t take risks, we don’t venture out into the real world, and we don’t smoke, have sex or do drugs like we should.
What we love to do is worry about what other people will think if we say something inflammatory. We’re so overwhelmed with being dictators to ourselves, that we’re missing out on taking risks.
Being wrong, confused or challenged is the only way to grow. Sharing a frankly batshit opinion is one of the joys of being young and ignorant. For instance, I, Adam Akins, hold that the vitamin biotin is a government created chemical to sedate the masses (I, Tania Azhang, do not share this view). Yet we can engage in discourse!
Your incessant worrying has marooned you, like Pinocchio in the stomach of the whale. Let’s go to the Isle of Toys! Let’s catch Donkey Fever! That is to say, playing the game long term is bad for the soul. We can’t afford to be the anxious generation. If we let the fear of making mistakes paralyze us, we fail our duty to contribute to society in any meaningful way.
Being conscious of the world is fine and good. But when it disrupts the ability to engage in conversations or discourse of any kind, it’s shooting yourself in the foot. We’re not arguing for people to go around saying racial slurs, but policing anyone whose opinion diverges from our own is stunting the dialogue that moves culture forward.
This social paralysis and practice of governance has started to take concrete effect on the 5C community, emblemized by Claremont McKenna dropping from first to sixth in the Foundation for Rights and Expressions collegiate free speech rankings.
The way cancel culture has gained so much traction in the social media decade is thanks to algorithms. Social media robs the canceled person of any humanity, and algorithms encourage essentially anonymous TikTok users to dogpile. According to a NPR article, social media algorithms specifically target viewers, showing them content that will spur outrage. This is how they optimize engagement. As a result, our ability to communicate with one another on critical social issues is impaired.
Cancel culture, and anxiety surrounding it, impedes our ability to advance social change. If we’re too scared to express any opinion at all, how will we ever make an impact?
So go forth. Do drugs, have sex, smoke cigarettes. Have a fucking opinion, and get canceled for it.
Tania Azhang PZ ’25 and Adam Akins PZ ’27 are both liberal and members of the woke mob. They’re both diagnosed with donkey fever.
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