“We no longer look for the truth or both sides of a story. Whichever side is loudest, wins... regardless of its relationship with the truth” Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Good morning, my name is Savannah Tomlinson. Thank you for the opportunity to speak about the worldwide concern and devastating effects of cancel culture at the 2022 Gold Coast Youth Leaders Summit. The purpose of cancel culture is to end the influence that people, brands or media have to because of their offensive or problematic actions and ideologies. Cancel culture is dangerous. The internet phenomenon is disguised as a way to hold people accountable for their actions, however, the new craze turns into harassment and bullying. Disseminating the psychological phenomenon of the mafia mentality and erasing the culture has devastating results. While some might say that cancel culture helps combat racist, sexist, and bigoted behavior on the Internet, cancel culture creates and spreads misinformation on a daily basis. The Internet can bring fame to anyone, but it can also take it away. This modern witch hunt is a threat to everyone, brands, communities and individuals. Mob mentality is a very important characteristic of cancel culture. Mob mentality is defined as “The psychological process that describes how people can be influenced by their peers to adopt certain behaviors on a predominantly emotional, rather than rational, basis” (brtanica,2021). The Internet has become the heart of the idea that everyone should have the same ideologies, beliefs and opinions. Today the mob mentality has evolved into blindly believing others without any form of proof. While people need to be held accountable for past actions in order to learn and grow, cancel culture is created for situations where people's actions are so immoral that they deny them the opportunity to change. The growth of social media has led to a blurred line between celebrity and average person, as influencers are able to quickly gain a fan base through platforms like Instagram and TikTok. However, getting canceled is just as easy as becoming famous. In late 2019 James Charles, a popular YouTuber with over 20 million subscribers, got into a scandal when fellow YouTuber and friend Tati Westbrook accused him of sexual misconduct and inappropriate behavior. With the popularity of both YouTubers, video views have skyrocketed, earning 48 million videos in less than a month. In the space of 4 days James lost over 2.5 million subscribers and received countless hateful comments and death threats. The claims later proved to be false and although James' followers began to increase to this day, James has yet to reach 20 million subscribers. Millions of people believed the allegations without evidence and unsubscribed simply because everyone else did. Mob mentality is a psychological tactic visible in society dating back to the BC era. So when will we ever learn from our mistakes? In 1692 the people of Salem gathered to accuse the people of the village of witchcraft, accusations that resulted from a combination of church politics, family feuds, and hysterical children. Without evidence, hundreds of people were accused of witchcraft and were left with the choice of falsely confessing and becoming a social outcast or denying it and being hanged. The Salem witch trials were built on lies, designed to destroy lives.