A fascinating read, still highly relevant today in our digital world. This covers the evolving issue of ‘public shaming’ and it’s growing significance in the online community via social media. We see people ruined, professionally and personally, over one photo, one comment or one ‘tweet’.
It certainly made me think about my own online presence, and how I already actively hold a lot of my life back from overexposure online. That pack mentality can destroy everything, without any kind of barrier or behaviour to hold it back. Human nature can be very cruel, and overly zealous, especially when there are no sensors or rules in place. I was particularly struck with Lindsey Stone, who posted a distasteful picture of herself holding up the middle finger outside a war memorial. One silly action from a young, foolhardy girl led to her being fired from her job as a carer, and hundreds of thousands of death threats and vitriol from strangers online who knew nothing about her. Now she will be forever remembered for that picture, that mistake, and constantly haunted by the image online. It will effect her future, and we see her struggle with accepting this and trying to move on. The use of so called ‘reputation rebuilders’ was also really interesting, as they try and hide this negative outpouring by manipulating Google.
I did find some sections a little ‘out there’, and not entirely relevant to what Robson’s was trying to get across (ie the group therapy stuff, which just came across as odd and out of place), however the overall message is clear. I liked the small section on prisoner rehabilitation particularly interesting (both through therapy, and alternative sentencing).
A decent read on an insightful topic.
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