Stop interacting with people you dislike online
On Dec. 18, 2023, comedian Ziwe Fumudoh sat down with recently-expelled congressman George Santos for a satirical-style interview to recap his short-lived career in Congress and inquire about what he plans to do in the future. When asked how the United States could possibly get rid of him, Santos gave some of the best advice of his political career, saying, “Stop inviting me to your gigs.”
Santos’ sentiment could not be more true. He currently headlines news articles every day despite being removed from Congress for over a month now. He charges $350 for a Cameo while still having 23 felony charges awaiting trial. The only thing keeping him afloat is the media and public discourse.
If we want people to disappear, we need to ignore them. The cliché that all press is “good” press rings true, especially in the United States’ current cycle of round-the-clock news and doom-scrolling. This mantra also applies to everyone else on the internet, not just politicians. Popular comedian Matt Rife has come under scrutiny for a domestic assault joke he made in his recent Netflix comedy special. Yet, despite public discourse around him, Rife has added more tour dates, made rounds on podcasts and increased his Instagram follower count — all because this controversy has brought him more attention. Public shaming has the opposite effect of what many hope for. The original intent of cancel culture was to stop giving attention to people who are problematic. In theory, this sounds great — a mass movement of information explaining why someone is problematic and telling the world to stop supporting them. But in practice, all this negative attention has the opposite effect: whoever is being canceled becomes more popular. In this case, the power of ignoring Matt Rife altogether would have more of a capacity to hinder his problematic views and his follower count than cancel culture ever would.
This phenomenon of negative attention and criticism effectively promoting controversial platforms is supported by social media algorithms. All content on social media works in the same way: The more users that interact with a video, the more it’s recommended to other people. There’s no distinction between watching a video whether you hate it or love it. When we talk about a person, other people will begin to engage in conversations with them. This spreads into traditional media and news outlets picking these stories up, further fueling the conversation.
This spiral of content-sharing isn’t entirely our fault; we are biologically compelled to interact with things that make us angry. Experiencing anger tends to make us bypass all rational forms of thought. Our brain is overrun with emotion, and what results is impaired judgment. People will act out by leaving hateful comments on videos, deep-diving into a person’s internet history or reposting content for others to see in hopes they will rationalize the anger that the viewer feels.
Furthermore, given the polarized nature of our current society, it’s often hard to change people’s minds once they have formed their opinions. Choosing to share your own opinion about a public figure doesn’t do much to change anyone’s mind; it only churns out more content that does nothing but add more fuel to the fire. By participating in these dialogues, we give more popularity to a person by introducing new content consumers into the mix. In this case, the best tool one has is silence itself.
However, ignoring content does tread a thin line. Sometimes, sharing information about others’ wrongdoings is vital. While cancel culture can overstep, it can still help hold celebrities accountable. During the #MeToo Movement in 2017, when women came forward with their stories of sexual assault and harassment, a mass uproar of anger helped bring those assaulters to justice. By initiating conversations about these egregious people and their actions, the public was able to avoid accidentally supporting them. Still, most times, simply blocking a person or a group is the best way to personally stop fueling them. Instead of inundating their posts with angry comments, let their hard-forged celebrity image slowly decay with every “unfollow.”
There’s an easy way to end this: We need to be more in touch with our emotions. If you don’t like a person, stop watching them. Nothing is more detrimental to a public figure’s career than irrelevance. Fewer followers and views online reduce brand sponsorships and money for views on platforms like YouTube and TikTok, both of which have creator funds where creators make money based on how many views they get. Unfollowing someone also mitigates hate speech and other personal and unnecessary attacks on a content creator’s character. Simply ignoring someone is much better for everyone in the long run.
Eliza Phares is a student at the University of Michigan. This article was originally published in The Michigan Daily and is posted here with permission from Eliza Phares.
Like most of the pictures on TeensParentsTeachers, the picture posted with this article is courtesy of a free download from Pixabay.com.