In our current everyday life, cancel culture has been normalized and seen in a lot of popular celebrity drama. For those who don’t know, cancel culture is a term to describe the calling out of a person and their disapproved behavior and/or actions, whether it’s online or in person. The term gained more recognition in the past few years, affecting many celebrities and sometimes normal everyday people. 

For many, if a person is canceled, it can affect their life greatly. Opportunities can be taken from them, friends and family may see them differently, and the parts of their life that may have been private before will become a lot more public and known. Though, at the same time, these people will have consequences to their actions and get the punishment they possibly deserved. So, the true question is- should cancel culture continue to be a popularized term? Is the publicity and punishment these celebrities get a good way to react to their disapproved behavior?

The students at Wilsonville have a similar understanding and belief on cancel culture and the way it should be treated. “I understand why it happens if the things a person does are unproblematic, but if it’s for a thing that a person doesn’t realize is wrong or it doesn’t affect anybody negatively, I feel like it’s just wrong,” Calli Weaving says. Lidya Harms, a junior, shares a similar opinion, saying, “I feel like it’s not really up to the media on how they can define someone being canceled. But it’s interesting to imagine being in the shoes of someone who’s been working hard to become famous, for example, only for them to lose it because of this. I just believe the media shouldn’t decide the way people treat celebrities and other people.”