Cancel Culture: A Study of its Beneficial and Harmful Effects on Society; Focusing on YouTube Influencers

Abstract

This study posits that cancel culture can be especially useful to society, exploring the degree to which it is harmful and to what extent it is beneficial. In addition, I'll examine reforms that might be implemented to maximize cancel culture's utility, as a social good. I will be focusing mainly on YouTube influencers throughout this paper. My research delves into a few other related questions that will shape this examination: how cancel culture affects the canceled content creator, why the severity of cancel culture differs between different content creators, and why that content creator was canceled. I gather evidence from scholarly articles, survey results, experiments, and interviews that have been documented by others that align with both arguments. What is more, I will source statistics of their audience sizes, only on YouTube even if they have a presence on other social media sites, because that's where this study is focused. Lastly, I will analyze the state of their income from these statistics showing their view and like counts to elucidate how the cancellation has affected their ability to make a living.