Blog #4

Compose a historical overview of an idea/policy/theme related to your writing project. For instance, if I’m thinking about writing about long distance relationships, I might look at the idea of romance novels and how it has evolved over time. I might also look at the idea of long-distance relationships and how they’ve evolved over time.

–>A more short-term modern history

With the internet in the palm of your hand, drama is never more than a few clicks away.  You can easily catch up on the latest news, stories, and especially the juicy gossip and tea that is being spilled by others.  This type of content is extremely popular on social platforms like Twitter and YouTube. Many channels on the YouTube platform act as news channels, constantly updating the viewers on what’s going on.  Popular channels people go to for this daily information include Philip DeFranco and DramaAlert. There are less known channels for drama within the respective genres of choice, as these channels essentially only talk about the bigger issues.  With every controversy cry out comes the inevitable Apology Video that can either improve the situation or effectively cancel a person’s career online (and possibly in real life as well).

The first thing these channels recommend when it comes to controversy is to issue a public statement about the issue.  Some of the most memorable (genuine) apology videos I’ve seen would have to include PewDiePie’s apology, Markiplier’s apology, and RossDraw’s apology.  I consider these three apologies to be genuine because they were done extremely professionally. No crying was shown, responsibility was taken, and even word said in these apology videos were well thought and meaningful.  In all three of these, responsibility was taken and not deflected, which is extremely hard to find in people over the internet. These apologies were aimed at redemption and they showed signs of future improvement to ensure that it would never happen again.  Of course, the flipside to this is that just because these apology videos seem genuine enough (as I interpreted them, at least), there’s always the chance that these people can go around and do the same thing again. PewDiePie is no stranger to controversy, with several scandals surrounding him and the use of the n-word (as a white person saying it) and even anti-semitism scandals.  

The apology videos that tend to be poorly received, and even been prone to satire, have followed a similar standard: Pretend to be sad or crying, Say how much you love your fans, play the victim and accuse people of “attacking” you, and overall not taking responsibility for what occurred.  Infamous videos like this include Laura Lee’s apology, Manny Mua’s apology, and even Logan Paul’s apology.   Apology videos are just alternative forms of public apologies.  Through these, many YouTubers release a full public statement on whatever situation had occurred.  It can be argued that instead of being an apology, these videos are done instead to defend and represent the true character they wish to be seen as.  While some YouTubers are “genuine” in their apologies, many of them are analyzed critically by the viewers and are often subject to satire and possibly even further repercussions economically.  “Cancel Culture” is supported by many when allegations are released on YouTube and it essentially ends the career of the person regardless of if the allegations were ever proven to be true or false. Cancel Culture is not unique to YouTube or to the internet.  False allegations have been filed against people leading to the same effect, socially at least.

Cancel Culture can be seen as extremely toxic and unforgiving.  It essentially punishes a person and grants them a “guilty until proven innocent” effect, and may not even go away if the person is legally proven innocent.  Some cases include Toby “Tobuscus” Turner, whose internet career was torn away from him over false rape allegations. Similar things have occurred in the real world, with false rape and even sex trafficking allegations being delivered against legally proven innocent people.  Defamation spreads quickly over the internet and can be nearly impossible to reverse.  With this on the horizion, it is understandable why some YouTubers are so quick to release a public apology.

On a positive side, Cancel Culture has effectively ended the careers of internet pedophiles.  It has placed pressure on YouTube to go as far as to restrict comments on videos involving children and at-risk child channels.  Some media people it’s influenced recently include people like Dylan_Simz or Romeo Lacoste. Dylan was a game changer under the company Electronic Arts for the game “Sims 4”.  With the leak of his inappropriate conversations with minors on Twitter, the sims community essentially pressured the cancellation of his career with EA. Romeo is a more recent example and a public statement has yet to be released by him, but in the air of these pedophilia allegations, the YouTube community is fighting hard to cancel his career as a popular tattoo artist.

In some cases, all a person can do to defend themselves after an issue has gone too far is to issue a public apology. Whether or not that public statement is received nicely is up in the air depending on how genuine they are, and whether or not they’re apologizing to apologize in the sense of “I’m sorry I got caught”, rather than apologizing and seeking true forgiveness and redemption in the eyes of the public.  The message behind the apology really makes a difference in the future of a person’s (or YouTuber’s) career. Much like in real life, and even seen in the past historical apologies of the world (much like Samuel Sewall’s apology for his widely known involvement in the Salem Witch Trials, which was a last effort at redemption once unfortunate events began occurring to his family), these apologies are sometimes given out as a feeble last-ditch effort to salvage a career (or salvation), making the more genuine ones harder to spot or even believe.

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