In a society where rising to fame is fairly easy due to social media apps like TikTok, there are too many instances where people worship “celebrities” who aren’t good people.

Many celebrities have a history of committing heinous acts, ranging from Travis Scott’s irresponsible behavior at his Astroworld music event — which resulted in eight deaths — to a good amount of Tik Tok stars who have used racial slurs, assaulted someone or even used their platform to spread negative behavior amongst their fans. These are just instances where people support celebrities just because they are physically attractive or they started out with a good reputation.  

The celebrities are to blame for their behavior, but so are the fans who continue to worship them after witnessing their wrongdoings. Celebrities such as Malu Trevejo, David Dobrik and Shane Dawson were all canceled in the past, but are still well-known thanks to their supporters, who continue to praise them despite their misdeeds. Not only do these fans keep irrelevant celebrities relevant, but they also affect young children who may believe that a bad celebrity is a good role model to follow as a result of their continued relevance.

Cancel culture, in which individuals put a stop to a celebrity’s fame, is generally beneficial since it pushes celebrities to learn from their mistakes. As a result, they will likely try to not to make the same mistake in fear of being canceled again. Although all humans make mistakes throughout their lifetime, there are celebrities like Scott who have a history of incidents that seriously hurt people. Therefore, the idea of “cancel culture” helps take the privilege of fame from celebrities who never deserved it.

Although there are occasions when celebrities redeem themselves by performing good deeds to cover up their wrongdoings, this does not solve the problem of the individuals who have been harmed by the celebrity’s action. We are partially responsible for stopping harmful celebrities from encouraging others to follow their actions, because as teenagers, we are the main audience of many of today’s celebrities. Some may argue that canceling celebrities is excessive, but canceling a celebrity who has done something bad in the past can help prevent them from doing worse things in the future.

We frequently see celebrities, such as Scott, James Charles and other influencers simply apologizing to protect their name. It’s critical that we don’t adore celebrities after they apologize for all of their wrongdoings, because they will almost certainly repeat their misconduct if they have a history of doing so. Instead, it is better to stop supporting celebrities if they have a past of multiple offenses.

Before praising one’s rise to fame, consider how they treat others and the life choices they make. Students are in the age group that primarily boosts a celebrity into fame, so just take some time to know them before becoming a devoted fan. It can protect not just other teenagers like us from being damaged as a result of the celebrity’s behavior, but also others from being influenced by those harmful celebrities.