Introduction

The modern perception of media discourse has become one of the major contributors to the genesis and development of an innovative model of social cognition driven by the influence of events and images represented in social media platforms. As the impact of social media increases at an unprecedented rate, research questions the value of such a tool by characterizing its beneficial and detrimental aspects (Hemsley et al., 2018). In previously, people were the mahoe actors in terms of managing the image on social media, today’s power of this instrument has gone far beyond an impact that one individual may have over another. A prime example of such power is the rise and rapid dissemination of cancel culture. According to Clark (2020), cancel culture stands for ‘an expression of agency, a choice to withdraw one’s attention from someone or something whose values, (in)action or speech are so offensive, one no longer wishes to grace them with their presence, time, and money’ (p. 1). Although the phenomenon itself has already obtained mass recognition in the media world, the attitude to the ‘canceling’ as a process remains rather controversial in terms of the range of precedents and behavioral patterns that justify the ethical predispositions of marginalizing people. Thus, the purpose of the following research is to define the extent to which active social media users perceive cancel culture to be a manifestation of justice. Essentially, the research aims at defining some common precedents to canceling individuals and outlining the overall users’ attitude to boycotting people for certain actions. The present study will be significant for the overall research due to the fact that the phenomenon of cancel culture is relatively new for the sociological paradigm, and little information is currently present on the matter of users’ perception of the culture’s appropriateness in today’s media discourse. The research questions of the study are as follows:

• How do modern social media users feel about the rapid increase of ‘canceled’ individuals?
• What are the possible precedents that justify one’s decision to ‘cancel’ an individual on social media?
• Does the timeline of a precedent discussed (when exactly the precedent happened) affect one’s decision to ‘cancel’ an individual on social media?

The objectives of the present study include:

• Analyzing the phenomenon of cancel culture in the context of the modern media theoretical frameworks;
• Defining social media users’ attitude to the cancel culture;
• Outlining the most common reasons and actions that justify one’s ‘canceling’;
• Defining the significance of the time gap between the precedent and one’s ‘canceling.’

Considering the information above, one may assume that the concept of cancel culture has a tremendous impact on modern society and one’s consideration of individual actions in the social context. However, it is vital to define the extent to which modern social media users conform or criticize the phenomeno