Cancel culture: Celebs like Caroline Flack and Amber Heard feel devastated when fans trust rumors and overreact
With social media pretty much determining how people should live, think, and be, many people have reached a point where they are unable to think through a situation logically without being influenced by the next person. This attitude often leads to what is called a 'chain reaction' that can escalate an otherwise dormant scenario.
Celebrities in particular often find themselves at the receiving end of such 'chain reactions' with people jumping to assumptions and conclusions based on a 'he said-she said' situation. As seen with celebrities such as Johnny Depp, Amber Heard and Caroline Flack, such types of judgments and culture of canceling out can have devastating effects on a celebrity's emotional state.
Emotional sensitivity expert Dr. Tracy Thomas spoke to MEA WorldWide (MEAWW) exclusively and provided some valuable insights on 'cancel culture' and its adverse effects. 'Cancel' or 'call-out' culture is a form of boycott where someone (usually a celebrity) has shared a controversial opinion or has some behavior in the past that is deemed offensive resulting in them being 'canceled' or boycotted across social media.
Dr. Thomas explained that people are emotionally pretty much interlinked and are all in an 'emotional field together'. "So in a scenario where one has a lot of followers — that has its own culture and environment. So when you’re talking about millions of followers, there is a massive change in how people are synchronizing with others."
"When you have millions and millions of followers that are a big support to you, there's a shock to the system when that emotional support is lost, and it’s extreme. It’s extreme because it’s rare for most human beings to have millions of humans syncing up with them in order to support them," she shared.
"As an Emotional Scientist, what I see is the underlying emotional matrix. We’re talking about shock, grief, anxiety, and fear. We’re talking about a feeling of being abandoned and rejected. This taps into people's primary safety, so there’s a traumatic response going on," Dr. Thomas added.
One of the biggest catalysts for a phenomenon like 'cancel culture' is a process called reactivity that is learned socially from parent to child as well as in communities. "It is ultimately based on a reactive emotional response rather than, ‘This is what is occurring. This is what this person is saying. This is what is factual. This is what my intention is and this is the action I will take to create the intention'," she reveals.
"Operating on facts is something that most humans don't even do because we're such a reactive society. People are telling stories and they're exaggerated to themselves, they’re exaggerated to other people... They are not based on fact. And, reactivity is very infectious," Dr. Thomas said.
A prime example of such a case would be the volatile relationship between Amber Heard and her former husband Johnny Depp and the domestic violence allegations surrounding them. These allegations were made public in 2016 when Heard filed a domestic abuse case against him.
This was leaked by the media and eventually saw the cancelation of Depp from the 'Pirates of the Caribbean' franchise on which he played the role of the beloved Jack Sparrow. At the time rumors suggested that Disney had intentionally attempted to distance themselves from Depp when abuse allegations against him were made public.
Heard is facing a similar situation right now with a big question mark hanging over her reprising the role of Mera in the movie Aquaman in light of a recent audio recording showing Heard admitting to being physically abusive to Depp.
As seen with the case of Caroline Flack, the TV host and presenter who committed suicide had been set to go on trial for the assault on her ex-tennis player boyfriend, Lewis Burton, whom she allegedly attacked with a lamp. The accusations had seen her depart her role as a host of ITV2's 'Love Island' with many people slamming her across social media platforms saying she deserved to be removed from the show.
"This is how reactivity brings people all the way to suicide. It happens in people every day, all over the world. They are in a state of reactivity. Reactivity is not reality, but it creates an unreal reality that is not factual, but it is so destructive and powerful and it's so painful that a person will react themselves all the way into killing themselves," Dr. Thomas said.
She went on: "So reactivity is not reality, but it will create a feeling of reality that will make somebody feel like they have to escape what that reactive reality is, and that's what happened to her. And so the opposite would be true, that if people were intentional, then not only would she be here, but all of the people that commit suicide, if they all knew how to be in intentionality, they'd all be here too. And a lot of things would be different. For all of the celebrities that have passed, it's the same concept.
"My absolute recommendation is to create a chain of intentionality with everything that we do. Every post that we make, every communication. And that's the world that we will be living in, which is a benefit to everyone."