Social Media Shaming - Scourge or Panacea?

I have been noticing this conversation starting to pop up in a few places. I admit it could be confirmation bias but it could also be the first stirrings of a shift in how we interact.

It will be interesting to watch.

 

I often think that part of the problem is that we seem to be discussing the phenomenon of social media shaming in something of a black and white dualism: is it good precisely as is, or is it entirely bad and we should condemn or prohibit it altogether. But the truth is likely to fall in the gray area in between the two extremes.

There probably is a place for some use of social media to shame wrongdoers or unethical people. But we need to be less quick off the mark: there is far too much fast response to shame people in situations where it turns out later that initial reports or analyses of the situation were incorrect or inaccurate and shaming was not, in fact, warranted. A great example of this would be that poor girl whose tweeted Africa joke was apparently completely misunderstood, and it ruined her life.

Or, on the other hand, there are also instances where massive, massive tsunamis of shaming are generated over genuine instances of unethical behavior, but unethical behavior which is vastly overshadowed by far worse unethical behavior elsewhere which is being ignored or underreported or being excessively greeted with apathy. An example of this would be the lion-killing dentist-- definitely a dick, and killing lions is legitimate douchebaggery-- but there's just something wrong with the internet and media exploding fiercely with shock and outrage over a dead lion; but police are killing black people left and right-- there were like half a dozen black and other POCs, mostly women, who died in police custody just that same week or so-- and media coverage is lackluster at best, and the vast majority of people online talking about it are black or other POCs.

Shaming people publicly is a powerful tool. And like any tool, it can be used for good or for ill, and the latter is more likely if wielded with a heavy hand.

 

Shaming people publicly is a powerful tool. So is the one ring. Neither can be used for good however, as both are fundamentally toxic items which inevitably produce toxic results:

 

Sure. People were doing things like this prior to the Internet, but the reach of their audience was increasingly limited. Even the early Internet wasn't as easily interconnected as we are today. Services such as Facebook and Twitter corral us into one place, the reach of our messaging is amplified by this. Sharing links, photos, and videos has become massively easier. The barrier to participate is low.

This is what I mean by technology amplifying our messaging. One careless, innocent, or malicious post can be shared by many more people than ever before. I don't think we quite grasp what this means yet.

 

I am bummed to see that things are not better on this front. If anything, things feel worse.

That said, I think we are talking about it more. And that's a good sign.


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