Webinar Recap: Navigating cancel culture and the impact on student well-being
According to Google Trends, interest in cancel culture is literally at an all-time high in 2021. Today’s 24/7 non-stop news cycle keeps polarizing stories in social media feeds, on front pages, and at the forefront of our collective consciousness. From Dr. Seuss to Charli D’Amelio, schools to military bases, and Mr. Potato Head to Aunt Jemima, cancel culture controversies swirls around a broad spectrum of topics.
A national trend of cancel culture is creeping into classrooms and putting teachers on the spot with managing complex and, often, emotional situations with students. It’s never been easier for students to voice their thoughts and opinions on hot-button topics. Creating TikToks, posting Instagram stories, sending out Snaps, and reposting content that reflects what they think fuels discussion with the potential to impact entire student bodies.
The Social Institute’s Founder and CEO Laura Tierney recently hosted a 30-minute webinar focused on the intersection of cancel culture and social media. The interactive session explored the direct link to critical modern life skills and how schools can address them.
Watch the full webinar here.
Merriam-Webster officially added ‘cancel culture’ to the dictionary in 2021, signaling its broad acceptance into the daily lexicon. It defined cancel culture as “the practice or tendency of engaging in mass canceling as a way of expressing disapproval and exerting social pressure.”
Earlier this semester, The Social Institute launched a #WinAtSocial Trending lesson about cancel culture, and the insights from students are telling.
- 73% of 9th-12th grade students say that cancel culture has come up in conversations with friends or family
- 6% of 5th-12th grade students believe that cancel culture is effective for holding others accountable
- 41% of 5th-12th grade students believe that it creates more problems than it solves
Cancel culture directly impacts communities as some experts believe it creates an unhealthy “us” vs. “them” dichotomy. According to Kimberley Wilson, a psychologist and author of How to Build a Healthy Brain, “Fundamentally, cancel culture is about shame and the fact that for the canceled person it can feel as though the whole world is attacking them.” The most considerable backlash of cancel culture stems from its desire to cancel someone rather than pursue growth and acknowledgment permanently.
Prioritizing modern life skills education addresses many of the compounding issues surfaced by cancel culture.
TSI’s #WinAtSocial Program helps students navigate challenging conversations and proactively sharpen the soft skills needed to process complex situations. Schools can help students build awareness of what they post and how others can interpret it by promoting and infusing modern life skills into relatable, everyday classroom discussions.
For a complete breakdown of cancel culture through the lens of students, along with specific steps schools can take to address it, WATCH the full webinar.
You can also check out our regularly updated webinar schedule for upcoming timely webinars featuring guest thought leaders and updated research and insights.
About The Social Institute
The Social Institute (TSI) is the leader in equipping students, families, and educators with modern life skills to impact learning, well-being, and students’ futures. Through #WinAtSocial, our interactive, peer-to-peer learning platform, we integrate teacher PD, family resources, student voice insights, and more to empower entire school communities to make positive choices online and offline. #WinAtSocial Lessons teach essential skills while capturing student voice and actionable insights for educators. These insights help educators maintain a healthy school culture, foster high-impact teaching, and build meaningful relationships with families. Our unique, student-respected approach empowers and equips students authentically, enabling our solution to increase classroom participation and improve student-teacher relationships. Through our one-of-a-kind lesson development process, we create lessons for a variety of core and elective classes, incorporating timely topics such as social media, A.I., screen time, misinformation, and current events to help schools stay proactive in supporting student health, happiness, and academic success.