So You've Been Publicly Shamed

This is my introduction to Jon Ronson's writing (and thinking), though I've heard his name bandied about quite a bit before coming to this book. "So You've Been Publicly Shamed" is an investigation into the phenomenon of online shaming (via social media) of individuals deemed to have somehow transgressed against the community (usually with some comment deemed racist or sexist), as well as a probing (or more like skimming) of the historical antecedents of this process, going all the way back to the stocks and pillories.Mr. Ronson writes in an accessible and breezy style, which has its merits, and he seems a bit more thoughtful than your average pop sociologist, and he's a bit more rigorous with his questions than your average journalist. Still, having read the book, it felt light on substance, more like a think piece in a magazine or maybe a 10,000 word long-form article in "The Atlantic."I admire Mr. Ronson for wanting to constantly check his own assumptions and question his motives, but this desire for honesty with himself sometimes shades into solipsism. Too often in this book, it seemed that Ronson was more apt to concern himself with how things made him feel rather than what he thought. And each time he overturned some stone whose underbelly seemed worth exploring, he quickly moved on. Everything he does alright reminds me of works by someone else on the same subject done much better. The sort of Stasi-Big Brother-Panopticon concept of a society where we all police ourselves, and our thoughts, and try to police those of our neighbors, reminded me very much of Timur Kuran's "Public Lies, Public Truths," and Ronson's book regrettably suffered each time the comparison made its way to the fore during the course of the book.His recognition that our current mavens of propriety have their origin in English and New England Puritanism is also true, but David Hacker Fischer and Colin Woodard both figured this out well before Ronson, and considering Ronson's an Englishman, his inability to expound upon what he sees as the neo-Puritanism of progressives is frustrating, but, at the same time understandable. To probe too deeply into this area would be to risk alienating a large segment of potential readers, who might take it as an insult if Ronson were to link their social justice crusade with previous moral crusades (there seems to be an overlap between social justice types and atheists, so the last thing you want to do is point out to these people that they're basically religious fanatics).Still this is a decent, timely, and even-handed treatment of the virtues and dangers of social sanction, applied now to the virtual commons rather than the "meatspace" of the city square or the agora.

I bought this book after reading a few excerpts online. The book is an interesting read, and provides some good examples of modern day social media witch hunts. The reason I am only giving it 3 stars is because it honestly doesn't add much more to what is available online. I think there was only one anecdote in the book that I hadn't already read about online in the articles about this book.Overall, the anecdotes about people who have been publicly shamed are interesting, but the book seems kind of aimless at times. It also only explores the subject matter at a superficial level, not delving too deeply into causes or consequences of this new trend in social media justice.It was fast read, and Ronson's style is agreeable and easy. I'm just not sure the actual content was fleshed out enough to warrant the price of a book.

Jon Ronson's (The Psychopath Test, The Men Who Stare at Goats) brings us a timely, and surprisingly insightful look into what it means to be shamed. From those pilloried in New England to witnesses harassed and belittled in the modern court room, shaming remains an integral part of our culture. Has the Internet age exacerbated this?The book follows people who have been shamed, with some deserving some comeuppance, and others ruined by a five second indiscretion. While the books begins simply enough with a story of Ronson himself being the victim of identity theft on Twitter, each successive story brought more questions to my mind.Did people who were mean, or otherwise disrespectful for a Twitter moment deserve to have their lives ruined, and their careers left in shambles? Should one awkward joke intended for close friends be allowed to trigger a person's ruination? Must we be so careful in today's world that we self-censor any thought that might possibly be misconstrued? Ronson wonders if "We were creating a world where the smartest way to survive is to be bland."There are so many competing ideas in today's society about censorship, political correctness, safe spaces, free speech, and the marketplace for ideas that it is difficult to understand the balances and trade-offs. Should one self-censor and be bland? Or, should one speak their mind and chance being pilloried on Facebook or Twitter?The book started slow for me, but each new story drew me in and forced me to reassess what I believed. Ronson does a good job of following up on those who have been shamed, with occasional heartbreaking results. A book that I thought would garner four stars (at most) in the beginning, earned that fifth star easily by the end.So You've Been Publicly Shamed was first published in 2015, but it is, and will remain relevant for decades to come precisely because people, and their temptation to shame, will not change.

I had no idea who Jon Ronson was or what he'd written before so I came to this book with no preconceptions. It seems that those who did know him from previous books have struggled with the change of direction represented by 'So You've Been Publicly Shamed' but I found it fascinating, entertaining, and a compelling 'page turner'. Similarly I didn't know of most of the case studies he described - the writer who 'made up' Bob Dylan quotes, the PR lady who tweeted an off-colour remark about AIDS, the girl whose goofy photo taken at a military cemetery led over a million people to google her name, or the tech nerd whose childish comments about 'big dongles' lost him his job and led to Twitter evisceration of the woman who 'outed' him.The books shows us how a thoughtless sentence, a careless statement or a moment of just not thinking before you hit the keyboard can lead to both famous and unknown people getting ripped apart online. It also offers us 'real world' cases of attempted shaming that didn't go as expected such as Max Mosley taking a national newspaper to court for claiming his sadomasochistic sex session with 3 sex workers in uniforms was a 'Nazi' reenactment - Mosley didn't care who knew about his sex life but refused (due to his infamous father Oswald Mosley) to have any association with the Nazis.There's a lot to think about in here. Several times the author suggests that the only way to survive in the modern world is to be totally bland and unnoticeable. At a time when the so-called 'Leader of the Free World' takes to Twitter like a scorned teenager with no behavioural 'filters', this book shows us the importance now, more than ever, of thinking before we speak/tweet/write, and of our responsibility to manage our online and real world reputations.

This definitely shone a light on the absurdity of public shaming and how social media transformed from a comforting place to share things you enjoyed with like-minded people without any pressure, to a cold, cruel and merciless crowd patiently waiting for you to slip up and then hurt you for it. As a young person on social media I'm sure I've taken part a couple of times, but honestly I tend to find pointless drama uninteresting and often don't get involved. But I do notice ridiculous shamings and I do feel afraid to say what I really think of them. Which is why the 'your privileged and therefor have no say' argument makes little sense to me. Perhaps in some scenarios its a justifiable response, but if the issue really was about discrimination and free speech then why silence others based on their race and background too? Its another tool to silence anyone outside the faceless crowd. I found the backlash you talked about toward the end unnecessary, especially since it was clearly written by those who didn't read one word of the book.On another note, the way you structured this book, and the way you handled these sometimes quite sensitive topics alongside funny, witty commentary was so engaging and made for a really enjoyable read. Will definitely recommend, and hope people start changing soon. I'm getting really sick of the poison that is social media.

Social media is fantastic, but it hardly needs saying that it has some pretty awful characteristics. For a start, if you make a mistake by, say, making an offensive joke, or even saying something that is open to misinterpretation, it is very public. And also, the web doesn't forget.In this very readable book, Jon Ronson interviews people who have been publicly shamed or, in the case of a teenaged girl who committed suicide, a close relative.Not all public shaming takes place online. The girl just mentioned felt very humiliated during the trial of the boy who raped her. (I remember reading about this at the time.)In fact, although the book is readable, it is also very uncomfortable to read. And what makes it even more uncomfortable is the realisation that when you 'call someone out' online as the current jargon has it, you could be the instigator, or one of the participants of, a process in which someone is tried and found guilty by 'the mob' -- sometimes without their even being aware of it at the time. You may object to being labelled as one of a mob, especially if you have only three followers on Twitter. But as Ronson says: "The snowflake never needs to feel responsible for the avalanche".Ronson is a very good writer, in that he brings some humour and humility to the subject matter. He also manages to end each chapter on a cliffhanger -- which is quite annoying if you need to get other things done!There is just one area in which I think Ronson is not forceful enough. He says:"unpleasant as it will surely be for you, when you see an unfair or an ambiguous shaming unfold, speak up on behalf of the shamed person. A babble of opposing voices – that’s democracy."It's a natural human instinct, I think, to wish to 'stand up for' someone, but there are two other considerations as well. In my opinion, standing by while someone is accused, tried, found guilty and punished sullies the online community. I know of a couple of online forums in which people are pounced upon for no other reason than expressing a contrary view to the majority. It's impossible to have an intellectual or even a merely intelligent discussion in such a negatively febrile atmosphere.But even if one were to be completely self-centred in such matters, if you don't support some hapless victim, who do you think will support you when it's your turn? And have no doubt: probably one day it WILL be your turn.

I have enjoyed every Jon Ronson book up until now, even counting him as one of my favourites but this book annoyed me in so many ways. It feels like he misses his own point half way through, to just play into the stereotypical problems associated with public shaming such as gender and race, but then trys to say he hasn't. I feel like he overly defends some of the shamees than is necessary too, implanting what he thought they meant rather than quoting what they claim they meant. Not impressed. Feels like he is talking about the internet from the perspective of someone that isn't 'connected'. Sorry, this book just made me angry. Roll on to the next book, which will hopefully return him to talk about what he does know about.

I have had no life for the last 8 years. My website was policed by a stranger, who then gathered recruits and online shamed me for something really trivial. Even though I resolved the issue, he hacked into accounts and so I moved. He was obviously still monitoring me as another trivial event happened and he recruited another set of people and online shame me again, the messages I received were pretty nasty and now talk about sodomy. They monitor the net for anything, my uncles obituary, anything I am a member of and get me kicked out, contacting ex employers, any forum I might join and I cannot get help to stop it. The quote from Mike Daisy is just how I feel and I know they keep monitoring me. I have no life which is why this book resonated so much with me.