Week 13 Reflection -- Cancel Culture is an Infringement on Individual Rights

[allisonmckinney]

In a lecture given by Mr. Miller, he introduces his subject by discussing how wonderful yet equally terrible the advances in modern technology are. I think this is a common issue with all advancements in life, as life (to me) is sort of a give and take where the good and bad often are mixed. In this sense, we have to weigh our pros and cons with the decision to utilize and advance these innovations in technology. I feel that this is one of the biggest struggles and decisions in life, is choosing to do or not do something when looking into the consequences. Although most people would agree that technology has improved modern society as a whole, I feel that it is important to recognize and acknowledge the downfalls that come with it, one of them being technological surveillance. With most technological advances, it does seem that privacy tends to be cut into and overlooked. I feel that it is almost becoming an individual issue, as in does the individual care enough to research and find other ways to protect individual privacy or if this is a sacrifice they are willing to make. In Mr. Millers seminar, he discusses this common issue of "cancel culture". I think personally that this is one of the biggest issues in our new generation, and it honestly is a huge infringement on freedom and I also feel that it is a very negative and judgmental thing to support. Especially in the example given in the talk, YouTube took advantage of their power to "cancel" and ban someone who was sharing an opinion and a different perspective. Personally I do feel that YouTube does have the authority to do things like this, as they most likely have policies and terms that their users must agree to, however I don't think that this means they should execute that power and manipulation on their users. I thought this discussion on "cancel culture" was very intriguing, especially when he discusses the Facebook blackout from Australia and how deeply it affected people's lives. I think this is one of the consequences people don't even realize, as many people can have their reputations and lives destroyed by this mindset of cutting them off or shutting them down. As Mr. Miller went on to discuss, he mentions how reliant the world has become on technology. I think this is also a big negative and dilemma for society, as we now are depending our whole lives on a manmade device that can be used to manipulate and/or hurt us in the end. I do think that his point about how we need to not rely so heavily on something that can disappear very easily is extremely true, and I feel that although technology can be a useful tool and advance to become a lot better, society needs to become independent from it and be wary of the dangers that comes with these advancements.