adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. Everyone who took part is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. For this analysis, we surveyed 10,093 U.S. Pew Research Center has a long history of studying the tone and nature of online discourse as well as emerging internet phenomena. This report focuses on American adults’ perceptions of cancel culture and, more generally, calling out others on social media. The survey finds a public deeply divided, including over the very meaning of the phrase. public views the concept of cancel culture, Pew Research Center asked Americans in September 2020 to share – in their own words – what they think the term means and, more broadly, how they feel about the act of calling out others on social media. And some argue that cancel culture doesn’t even exist. There are plenty of debates over what it is and what it means, including whether it’s a way to hold people accountable, or a tactic to punish others unjustly, or a mix of both. Over the past several years, cancel culture has become a deeply contested idea in the nation’s political discourse. This term was then referenced in film and television and later evolved and gained traction on social media. The phrase “cancel culture” is said to have originated from a relatively obscure slang term – “cancel,” referring to breaking up with someone – used in a 1980s song. The number of people who can go online and call out others for their behavior or words is immense, and it’s never been easier to summon groups to join the public fray. But the internet – particularly social media – has changed how, when and where these kinds of interactions occur. People have challenged each other’s views for much of human history.

Love Comes Silently by Andrew Grey