On social media, your whole life is on display for anyone who wants to see it. This includes your best and worst moments. For celebrities, their influence can change someone’s opinion and way of thinking. When it comes to comedians, there’s a fine line between a joke and an offensive statement. Kevin Hart, most known for starring in, “Get Hard,” was recently under fire for tweets about the LGBT+ community as he was a candidate to host the Golden Globes.

In 2011 Hart tweeted, “If my son comes home and trys[sic]to play with my daughter’s doll house, I’m going to break it over his head and say, “stop that’s gay.” The tweet was meant as a silly, joke but the LGBTQ+ community took offense and called out Hart.

Hart has a history of making offensive jokes in his tweets and stand up shows. However, he isn’t the only celebrity being called out for old tweets. Many beauty influencers have been called out for racist tweets. Although everyone makes mistakes, when you’re a celebrity, your mistakes are on display for everyone to see. However, should these celebrities be forgiven? Social media makes it impossible to hide any past mistakes. The only thing Hart and others can do is try to learn from their mistakes and try understand the power and influence of their words.

“As a member of the LGBTQ+  community, my opinion is the tweets happened many years ago and he has matured since then, and hasn’t had a second offense since. I think he deserves a second chance because this happened many years ago and he apologized. I don’t think his past should haunt him in any way. In fact, I believe more people should be like him. He messed up, but he admitted to his mistake, and he changed,” said sophomore Reanna Rex.

Social media makes it easy for us to say things without thinking about who our words could hurt, but it also makes our mistakes public. Social media can help us take responsibility for our actions and better ourselves, so we are more careful of what we say. There will always be a chance to say negative things online, but learning from our missteps and understanding the power of our words is the only way to grow from them.