In 2023, almost 50% of young Europeans experienced receiving hostile or degrading messages online. Add Malta’s small population to that, and the fear doubles. When your entire future could be affected by a screenshot taken out of context, it’s not just “internet drama.” It’s anxiety. Real, day-to-day anxiety.
And it’s not always about holding people accountable, sometimes it’s just cruelty masked as justice.
A friend of mine said something that stuck with me:
“Cancel culture doesn’t make people kinder; it makes them quieter.”
And he’s right.
People don’t speak up, not because they don’t have opinions, but because they’re terrified someone will twist their words. Instead of learning, everyone hides behind carefully filtered captions and statements that sound… safe. Too safe.
Even in class discussions at university, you can feel it. Nobody wants to challenge anyone. Nobody wants to risk being labelled insensitive, problematic, or worse. So we end up performing correctness, rather than actually understanding each other.
I’m not saying people shouldn’t be called out when they say something harmful. Obviously they should. But there’s a massive difference between:
-
“Hey, this thing you said has impact, here’s why,”
and -
“You’re dead to us, don’t ever show your face online again.”
The first teaches…. The second destroys.
And young people who are literally teenagers are getting the second one.
There’s research showing that over 60% of teens feel pressure to present a “perfect” version of themselves online. That pressure creates a culture where nobody feels safe being themselves unless they’re polished, edited, correct, flawless. But humans aren’t flawless. Especially not at 16, 17, 18, the ages where we’re supposed to mess up, learn, try again, grow.
Cancel culture here feels intense because our communities are micro-sized. We don’t just fear strangers judging us as we fear our aunt’s neighbour’s cousin sending our post to our parents. We fear a teacher seeing our story. We fear entire friend groups deciding overnight that we’re “problematic.”
There was a Reuters Digital News Report showing Malta has one of the highest social media usage rates in Europe, especially among youth. That means everything blows up fast. A TikTok with 200 views still reaches half your school and a viral IG story can hit your whole town.
So how do we deal with this as young people?
I’m not pretending I have the perfect answer. But here’s what I do know, and what I wish schools actually taught us:
1. Intent matters, not just impact.
If someone’s genuinely trying to learn, don’t nuke them from orbit.
2. Public shaming doesn’t educate, it humiliates.
Correct privately when you can. Call out publicly only when it’s actually needed.
3. Accept that people can change.
If we don’t believe in growth, what’s the point of anything?
4. Don’t treat the internet like a courtroom.
We’re teenagers, not lawyers.
5. And most importantly: give people space to learn.
Nobody grows under a microscope.