{"id":34195,"date":"2021-05-19T15:14:41","date_gmt":"2021-05-19T19:14:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=34195"},"modified":"2021-05-23T16:24:31","modified_gmt":"2021-05-23T20:24:31","slug":"online-shaming","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/online-shaming\/","title":{"rendered":"Online Shaming: Democratic, Anonymous, Lawless"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Do you think online shaming is an effective form of punishment? What are the psychological consequences of being a victim of online shaming?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Some people argue that online shaming is just commentary because it can\u2019t hand down \u201creal\u201d punishment. However, making people feel ashamed is one of the worst psychological punishments out there.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Keep reading to learn about the phenomenon of online shaming.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Rise of Online Shaming<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Online shaming on social media differs from older forms of public punishment because it is democratic, anonymous, and lawless. Anyone can choose a target, and unlike a formal justice system where the accused has rights, online, no one has any rights. People can be punished without evidence and there\u2019s no time limit on the punishment.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Online shaming on social media can be a force for a good<\/strong>\u2014the public can call out previously inaccessible people and companies for objectively despicable behavior. Online shaming can force change that would be time-consuming or impossible to win through the justice system.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\"><li>Example #1: After the death of gay singer Stephen Gately, <em>Daily Mail <\/em>columnist Jan Moir wrote that civil partnerships could never have happily-ever-afters. The public was so angry that Nestl\u00e9 and Marks &amp; Spencer pulled their advertising from the <em>Daily Mail<\/em>\u2019s website and the paper lost money.\u00a0<\/li><li>Example #2: When a couple lost their jobs and could no longer afford their membership fees to LA Fitness, the company refused to cancel their membership. The internet rallied and LA Fitness allowed the cancellation.\u00a0<\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>Online <a href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/public-shaming\/\">public shaming<\/a>, while it does involve a digital \u201ccrowd,\u201d may have a more complicated explanation than whatever scientists ultimately discover about crowd behavior.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Another scientific principle that might have a hand in shamings that get out of control is <strong>feedback loops\u2014responses to your behavior that inspire you to change it. <\/strong>For example, your Speed signs are a feedback loop because they tell you how fast you\u2019re going, which gives you an opportunity to make a change\u2014for instance, slow down if you\u2019re breaking the speed limit. If you do make that change, you get immediate feedback again\u2014the next \u201cYour Speed\u201d sign will show you\u2019re driving at the right speed, and some signs will even congratulate you for this.&nbsp;<strong>Online shaming is a form of feedback loop\u2014if you shame someone and are congratulated, that positively reinforces your behavior and you\u2019ll probably keep on shaming. <\/strong>As the shaming grows, you\u2019ll just keep seeing posts from people who agree with you and your social media feeds will become an echo chamber.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Do you think online shaming is an effective form of punishment? What are the psychological consequences of being a victim of online shaming? Some people argue that online shaming is just commentary because it can\u2019t hand down \u201creal\u201d punishment. However, making people feel ashamed is one of the worst psychological punishments out there.&nbsp; Keep reading to learn about the phenomenon of online shaming.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":35787,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,24],"tags":[277],"class_list":["post-34195","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-psychology","category-society","tag-so-youve-been-publicly-shamed","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v24.3 (Yoast SEO v24.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Online Shaming: Democratic, Anonymous, Lawless - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Online shaming differs from old forms of public shaming because it&#039;s democratic, lawless, and anonymous. This is also why it&#039;s so insidious.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/online-shaming\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Online Shaming: Democratic, Anonymous, Lawless\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Online shaming differs from old forms of public shaming because it&#039;s democratic, lawless, and anonymous. This is also why it&#039;s so insidious.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/online-shaming\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Shortform Books\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-05-19T19:14:41+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-05-23T20:24:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/wordpress.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/social-media-technology-texting-smartphone.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1920\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1080\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Darya Sinusoid\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/online-shaming\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/online-shaming\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Darya Sinusoid\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#\/schema\/person\/0421cce75bc249b11e2517b3a91f9c46\"},\"headline\":\"Online Shaming: Democratic, Anonymous, Lawless\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-19T19:14:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-23T20:24:31+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/online-shaming\/\"},\"wordCount\":436,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/online-shaming\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/social-media-technology-texting-smartphone.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"So You&#039;ve Been Publicly Shamed\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Psychology\",\"Society\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/online-shaming\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/online-shaming\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/online-shaming\/\",\"name\":\"Online Shaming: Democratic, Anonymous, Lawless - Shortform Books\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/online-shaming\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/online-shaming\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/05\/social-media-technology-texting-smartphone.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-05-19T19:14:41+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-05-23T20:24:31+00:00\",\"description\":\"Online shaming differs from old forms of public shaming because it's democratic, lawless, and anonymous. 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