Advantages and Disadvantages of Public Shaming on Social Media

PUBLIC SHAMING ON SOCIAL MEDIA
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Introduction
Imagine waking up in the morning to find that you are trending on social media platforms purportedly for suing your nephew for an overzealous hug. This is the situation which 54-year-old Jennifer Cowell found herself in October 2015 following a widely publicized and shared story claiming that she had sued her 8-year-old nephew for breaking her wrist while hugging her CITATION Eri151 \l 1033 (Levitz, 2015). The story in the public sphere had left many details which wen narrated out of context changed the story. First, she wanted to sue the insurance company for compensation, and since her attorney insisted that there must be respondent to the case, she reluctantly included her nephew. In Minnesota, the attorney advised her to name the nephew since the case would only proceed if she named a person and not the home insurance company. Thus, to build an impermeable case, Cowell’s attorney advised her to implicate the nephew even though she was against the idea and never sought to take money from her nephew’s family. It was a simple legal procedure that Cowell followed in seeking compensation from the homeowner’s insurance company, but it was completely taken out of context. Following her minutes of infamy, she went on to lose her job and years later she finds it hard to get another job as many employers do not want to be associated with her past although they know her innocence in the case.
This is the power of the internet where people take to the internet to shame others without first verifying the source of their information or even contextualizing it. The motive of social media users to troll others is complicated and multifactorial. Social media users hurl insults and troll innocent people which have devastating short a long-term effect on their lives. Walter Palmer also innocently went trophy hunting in Zimbabwe and killed a 13-year-old male lion which was under environmental protection CITATION Kat151 \l 1033 (Rogers, 2015). He was lynched on the internet and vilified for his actions whilst he did not know of the rarity of the lion and or if it was protected. His dentist clinic and home were vandalized, and he even received death threats. These stories paint a grim picture of the new age of social media and how it is being weaponized by people to destroy the lives of other people. However, public shaming is not entirely wrong, and it has been used as a way to earn justice for millennia. Even in the age of social media, public shaming has been good to compel corporations, powerful individuals to abide by the social order. Recently, the me-too movement has harnessed the power of public shaming and used it to compel high profile individuals to resign, or they are arraigned in court for sexual harassment.
Advantages
Public shaming helps to unite and bring to book criminals and high-profile individuals who otherwise would buy their immunity with their influence or money, i.e. CEOs of big corporations, politicians, wealthy businesspeople, iconic artists etc. Previously, the crimes perpetrated by these individuals were never prosecuted, and their victims never had justice because these individuals could buy their freedom. Publicly shaming Bill Cosby and other notable politicians like Al Franken helped the victims of their sexual harassment to get justice CITATION Car18 \l 1033 (Kelly & Hegarty, 2018). Social media has become a weapon against bullies in the society whether individuals or corporations. Anyone who feels he/she has been discriminated or treated unfairly takes to social media to air their grievances. In some cases, these grievances get viral, and they pile immense pressure on the individual or corporation to apologize and or prompt the police to investigate a possible crime. Thus, public shaming if used for good almost benefits everyone and maintains the social order. As for corporations, which have been previously immune to prosecution are also bowing to the power of public shaming on social media. Most corporations lobby legislators to make laws in their favor. The laws are in some cases unethical, and if unchecked, such laws empower the corporations to conduct their business unethically.
Public shaming in the age of social media has become deterrent. The very thought of having internet infamy for all wrong reasons has made people hold back potentially bad decisions CITATION Lor16 \l 1033 (Stalans & Finn, 2016). They always consider the long-term impact of their actions, especially in the public light. Almost everywhere in the world where there are network support and people have smartphones will keep recording anything bizarre in their environment. Other people will publish your folly if you do it in the public space and this has prompted many people to consider the consequences of their actions. They understand that it can make them trend in the world with long term implications for their actions. In the past, some of these people would have committed these crimes and move to a new neighborhood if the people around them find out of their actions. For example, if a paedophile is arrested, in the past most likely the people from his/her home area would have known about it, and they could become fugitives and avoid prison for the rest of their lives. However, in the age of social media, these individual’s information would be circulated on social media and publicly shamed which would lead to one or two results. The individual has nowhere to hide in the world and two, he /she starts paying for his actions because that online public lynching is also a form of punishment. Thus, criminals now know they have nowhere to run if their story finds it...