Students are always the first to be blamed in this pandemic and it’s unfair

By Darren Casserly

Opinion Editor

There is a saying that every generation thinks the next one is the worst ever, and it remains very true to this day. If you were to go by the description on Twitter, you’d think that the world was a perfect utopia before we came along. You’d think that young people caused the housing crisis, we’re too stupid to save money to buy a house, we’re too easily offended, and we complain about everything. Of course most of this is a complete lie and I’m not sure if I’m too naïve, but most people don’t believe it either, but it’s put forward by enough people for me to bielieve that there is a feeling among older people that we’ve ruined everything and that’s incredibly unfair.

It’s not easy being a young person in Ireland today, college is more expensive than ever, finding a place to rent is hell and never mind a job or mortgage. On top of this it looks like a lot of us will be graduating into a recession. A one-way ticket is starting to sound appealing when I list all the problems out like this. Of course I’m not saying that all young people are completely blameless there are plenty of young people out there who don’t care about the pandemic and are having parties all that, but the overwhelming majority have sacrificed a lot in the past year and it has always been overlooked when people criticize the actions of young people on social media. The main gripe I have with it is there are people of all ages breaking lockdown restrictions, but somehow the blame is put on one group of people and it doesn’t seem fair.

College students have been forgotten throughout this pandemic, it’s something that a lot of us having been since day one of this awful state of affairs began. There doesn’t seem to be any kind of push to improve things for students. The Minister for Further and Higher Education, Simon Harris has more interest in making it big on TikTok than in helping students. This pandemic has hit students as hard as anyone else and there is no consideration given to any kind of improvement for us, especially first years who have had a lot of important milestones taken away from them. The only hope is that next year will be the return to in-person learning, remote learning has been better for some, but awful for the overwhelming majority. There has been very few benefits given to students this year and yet we are blamed disproportionately for incidents during the pandemic and it needs to stop.

Cancel Culture: A Step Too Far?

Claire Sammon

Upon scrolling through Twitter recently, I made an observation which filled my heart with sadness. Twitter once was an app renowned for its light-hearted and funny nature. However, the timeline and trending page are now almost constantly bombarded by keyboard warriors who simply never have anything nice to say about anything or anyone. It appears celebrities are being cancelled left, right, and centre for at times, the most minor things. Terms such as ‘woke’, ‘snowflake’, and ‘cancelled’ are now becoming an everyday addition in the vocabulary of many social media users.

In recent years, cancel culture has become a global phenomenon within the media. Is it justified for public figures to become ‘cancelled’ overnight?

What exactly does the term ‘cancel culture’ entail?

Were you to look in a dictionary, it would tell you that cancel culture is a modern form of ostracism in which someone is thrust out of social or professional circles – whether it be online, on social media, or in person. The concept of cancel culture has one aim, that aim being to end one’s career – mercilessly and quickly.

It seems to me that nowadays, many individuals are, to put it bluntly, obsessed with being politically correct. The reality is, we are currently living in a time where political correctness outweighs pretty much everything else.

One act of deemed immoral behaviour can have a detrimental effect on one’s career, causing them to know longer be viewed as a person of positive influence.

For example, successful social media influencer and makeup artist James Charles has lost a significant number of subscribers, and therefore losing out on a significant amount of brand deals after a recent indiscretion.

We need to consider who exactly is deciding that these people need to be ‘cancelled’. It appears to me that it is the keyboard warriors who frequent social media sites such as Twitter, TikTok, Instagram, etc.

Once the idea is expressed on one of these

Many individuals are, to put it bluntly, obsessed with being politically correct. The reality is, we are currently living in a time where political correctness outweighs pretty much everything else.

sites, things start to snowball.

Shares spread ever so quickly, and before long, a person and their career can face obliteration. Often, these people are not given an opportunity to present their side of things, and the facts are not considered.

Sensationalism is the key word here. Is this right? Is this where we have come to as a modern society? I think it is something we need to seriously think about. In our modern democracy, we constantly declare that we believe in the principals of freedom of speech in the expression and of opinion, and that a person is innocent until proven guilty. These principles are the foundation of all modern democracies. Unfortunately, I feel that all too often these important principles are forgotten about in the rush to denounce and ‘cancel’ individuals. When I listen to the radio, or turn on the television, I frequently hear about the importance of mental health or wellbeing, particularly in these difficult Covid times. We have all become acquainted to how fragile mental health is, and the importance of offering a helping hand to those who may be suffering in silence. The irony of this, is that a lot of the time, the same people who hopped on the ‘be kind’ bandwagon, often jump at the opportunity to ‘cancel’ someone. Many individuals have had suicidal thoughts, or have self-harmed, or have been left with no other option than to resort to medication. This is something that as a society we cannot be proud of. The tragic death of the television presenter Caroline Flack sent shockwaves through social media forums. Flack took her own life as a result of being constantly scrutinised by the British tabloids and by social media trolls. Moving forward, I would hope that we would begin to examine this desire to cancel individuals. It is my opinion that this trend is not healthy and is of no benefit to society or to the individual. As Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, “Human kindness has never weakened the stamina or softened the fiber of a free people. A nation does not have to be cruel to be tough”. Are online friends really your friends?

By Darren Casserly

This last year has led to a rise in social media use and for a lot of people they have made more connections through social media. Everyone knows to be at least somewhat weary of calling people you don’t know offline a friend, but this has changed in the pandemic. When all you can only talk to your friends online, the distinction between your ‘real’ friends and online ones blur.

While it can be said that you don’t really know your ‘real’ friends, you have a better understanding of them by comparison to the ones you only know online. There have been countless studies which show that social media is addictive and has a negative effect on mental health. Personally, I would feel more isolated without it over the course of the last year, but it is something that I have used too much, there really isn’t much more to do now. Social media has been great for this last year in particular when there wasn’t much to do but, it can be just awful, particularly Twitter and it is just what happens when people think they have their identity hidden even when it’s not. There definitely is a sense that there are a huge number of people whose online personality and their ‘real’ personality are completely different, and, in most cases, the online personality is closer to the truth.

This was an issue that has been talked about for years, ever since people had hundreds of ‘friends’ on Facebook. It really has not changed that much since it’s just that the platforms have changed and it’s all about mutuals and for some people about trying to find a community in a year where people are feeling more isolated than ever. Knowing what kind of people they are in that community when you don’t share that much is hard. Of course, the same could be said for these same kinds of people in person also, it just is easier to create a more tailored persona online as people see and hear less of you.

Don’t get this wrong, I am sure that there are people who have made plenty of online friends who would actually be better ones than those that they made in person. But the fact remains, there should still be a level of weariness around people that you meet online. It is a different form of friendship and you should be really sure of a person before you should call them a friend.