By, Alisa Yardley
They say you should not pick a book based on the design of its cover, but in this case that's exactly what I did. I saw the title and was instantly intrigued. I have experienced public shame. I wanted to know what Jon Ronson had to say on the subject. I was curious to know if the shaming I had experienced was the same kind he was referencing. It turned out to be something different, but the parallels were all too familiar.
So You've Been Publicly Shamed primarily focuses on stories of internet shaming with an emphasis on situations that originated on the popular social media platform, Twitter. Jon Ronson interviewed several people who had become targets of public shaming. He asked them how and why they had found themselves in such unenviable positions, and what effect the shaming had on their lives, and the lives of those closest to them. The stories in the majority of his cases, were, in my estimation, about regular people who made regular mistakes and were paying hefty prices for them.
Mistakes and poorly thought out decisions often carry consequences. Even accidents have repercussions. The question that most often came to my mind while reading this book, (likewise when I read what remind me of 'Jerry Springer' style fights on social media) is how do we make it alright for anyone to call people names, threaten, or otherwise belittle and bully each other for things we don't agree with, when none of us can say we have not made blunders of our own? Certainly, some mistakes are bigger than others, but is it helping people improve by threatening their safety, firing them from their jobs, and turning them into modern day bearers of the proverbial scarlet letter? Or is there perhaps a more humane approach we could take? Personally, I think we can do better.
Furthermore, when someone makes a mistake that may seem insensitive or straight up lousy, are the people who posts harsh comments, belitting diatribes or threats to someone's personal well-being (some have even gone so far as to issue death threats) not also making a poor choice? Are they not behaving hypocrytically? What if the issue you are upset about was not a mistake? Sometimes people do and say terrible things. Sometimes people behave in ways we find difficult, if not impossible to understand. It is a fact of life. We may be justified in our outrage. But does that give us the right to take a "no holds barred" approach with someone? Does one abuse justify another? Perhaps that is a question too loaded to be answered here, so I would only say this, using a cliche most of us have heard, two wrongs don't make a right. And fighting fire with fire usually only makes things worse.
This book was a fantastic, thought provoking read that I highly recommend. It highlights some valid points and has the potential to benefit many citizens, in my opinion.
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