Public Shaming via Social Media
Or as I like to call it, Vigilante Paparazzis. So I was driving into work today listening to the radio and heard a story. Basically a woman was riding on a train and overheard(eavesdropped) on a conversation between 2 buddies “braggging”(her term) about how they are cheating on their wives. Being disgusted by what she heard she took it upon herself to take a picture of the guys and put them on blast through social media. So the debate raged on,. was this the right thing to do or was she completely out of place?
Me, personally, I feel like this is a total and complete violation of privacy and just a nosey person subjecting the rest of the world to her own version of the moral code. Now that’s not to say I condone or condemn cheating in any way. This is not about the merits of what’s right or wrong, lets stay focussed. This is solely about the merits of being in a position to hear information that has nothing at all to do with you and taking it upon yourself to inject yourself into someone elses life. So before you break out the lynch mob and demand my head on a silver platter you need to stop and really think about what’s going on.
The questions is, how is what she did any different from what the paparazzi do on a daily basis? At what point is it “doing the right thing” vs just being flat out nosey? Social media, gossip columns and magazines have created such a buzz and craving to dive into the private lives of celebrities that the public in general is no longer satisfied with just celebrities. Now its branched out to neighbors and coworkers and even strangers in the street. people are craving knowledge about people and topics that have nothing to do with them. Which makes you stop and wonder, have people’s lives become so sad and boring that they can only find satisfaction in finding out the most intimate secrets of other people?
What this woman, and anybody else who thinks like her, should really have done before she made the decision to post that information was to stop and ask herself, how would i feel if someone found out a dark secret about me and decided to put me on blast on social media? Who among us is living so squeaky clean that they have absolutely no secrets to hide? Lots of us claim that we live our lives out loud and in the open but in reality we all have some bit of information or some action we’ve done that we would really rather not be brought to light.
It’s the old story of those who live in glass houses should not throw rocks. And if you really stop to consider reality, we all live in glass houses. That’s why the call it PRIVACY! We rant and rave about “Big Brother” always watching us and yet we are out here doing far worse than big brother could ever be accused of doing to us. When you gossip about your neighbor or coworker, you can’t claim to be doing it for the sake of National Security. You know good and well you’re doing it for the sake of your own nosey nature. You’re sticking your nose in someone elses business for your own personal satisfaction.
I for one think this woman was totally wrong and completely out of line to have overheard a conversation on a public train about someone’s private life and to take it upon herself to be their judge, jury and executioner. Anybody that does this is wrong. There is a media frenzy over the whistle blower Ed Snowden for leaking information about the NSA and its spying techniques. The nation erupted with indignity over learning they government is listening to our private conversations and using them against us when they feel there’s an injustice being done, and yet the same public is praising this woman for doing the exact same thing.
