We all have bad moments. Plenty of us also have moments that just look bad when taken out of context. These instances used to break the surface of public attention only briefly, if at all. When they lingered, they did so only as painful personal memories.
But over the past decade, all that has changed. “Cancellation” has become a regular occurrence, and the threat of it hangs over us all. High-quality video cameras are everywhere, and anything can be recorded. Thanks to social media, even the most trivial interaction can be captured and broadcast to the world.
So you lose your temper in traffic, or at the store. You make a tasteless joke, you say something intemperate, you behave badly in a relationship—and suddenly these unpleasant social missteps are memorialized. They become part of the historical record.
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