Public shame on us and Justine Sacco

I recently came across an interesting NY Times article by Jon Ronson about people whose lives had been ruined due to social media shaming. There is a lot there to think about; but, one woman in particular, Justine Sacco’s life was turned upside down after she posted a series of unseemly, sardonic tweets on her way to South Africa for holiday in 2013. Now keep in mind, she is a global PR rep for IAC, the parent company of Vimeo, Tinder, OKCupid, and over 150 other brands.

Yup...that’s what she tweeted. Well that was the worst of what she tweeted as she began her journey from London to South Africa. What she didn’t know was that by the time she landed she would be the number one trending tweet in the world, she would be publically fired, and she would have a superabundance of people ripping her to shreds in the Twitter-world and beyond. So much so that she feared for her safety and the safety of her family.

To be honest, I found the tweet about “Chilly — cucumber sandwiches — bad teeth. Back in London!” kind of funny. But, no matter what...the tweet about AIDS coming from a communication rep or anyone on the planet is just wrong, over-the-line, awful! Kidding or not...it doesn’t matter. I hate to overgeneralize here, but most people would not find the humor or irony in that. Of course she released a public apology and said she never expected anyone to take it seriously because it was so obviously “tone-def” and, I quote her here, “Only an insane person would think that white people don’t get AIDS”. She was making fun of the privileged bubble she is so accustomed to. Satire? Irony? Maybe, but it came across as prejudice, bigotry, ignorance. People don’t have time or take time to understand context. People can be quick to judge and then bully. The flip side of this coin.

I am not saying everyone is a bully, but the thousands of vindictive comments this women received in response to her tweet were no better than her tweet itself. Is a bully better that a racist? Is it not a dollar versus 4 quarters? same but different?

Some argue this is about freedom of speech. But are we really free to speak what we so choose? I’d like to think we are, but not without consequence when we are talking to the world. A lesson that should be learned by all.

To be honest, I am very thankful Facebook was not around in my college years, and doubly so that some of the ridiculous things I have said and done weren’t publicly broadcasted to live on forever on the Internet. But then again, people should think carefully about posts, tweets, selfies, status updates, etc. It's important to teach students and our children to think before they put stuff out there. Maybe we should err on the side of keeping discreet if what is being said is not beneficial, informative, or humorous to most. I think it’s called tact. What would your grandmother, your boss, the pope say/think about this? Would it be better understood as a private message?

Shame on Justine Sacco, but shame, shame, shame on social media. I’m really not sure anybody’s in the right here. Civil rights, public shaming, and racial bigotry aside, I do wish more energy was used to find connections as opposed to looking for ways to be divided, constructing more than destructing. I can’t tell you if Justine Sacco is a racist, but she’s tactless. Not such a good trait for a PR person, but she is still a person. Either way, there are tons of bigots spewing all sorts of disgusting filth on social media, I choose not to participate. Who will be next in the social media shame game? If we watch what we say, it hopefully won’t be you or me.

Please read/skim the article and give your opinion? Should all the racists out there be hanged? Should we make fun of epidemics and terrorism? or just dongles? Where do we draw the line in lynch mobbing?

#socialmedia #publicshaming