Public Shaming

Last year I read a great book by Jon Ronson called, "So You've Been Publicly Shamed." I highly recommend this to anyone wanting a presence on social media platforms: Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.  Here's the rub: I've never seen it happen, until this week.  Yes, I saw someone taken down. I don't know if this person will lose their job or not but the messages were, disturbing to say the least.

After reading the book, it really made me think about my public presence. Heck, it made me think about my private presence.  So from here on out, I can assure you that I will never tweet, post or send text messages that could ever get me in any kind of trouble. I will no longer speak in a public forum about those things which might incite the wrath of another person, even one just over hearing the conversation. Because we all know things can be recorded right?

So, how did this guy get it?  Well he signed up for one of those online dating sites. A girl messaged him and it escalated. Anyhow, the guy started calling her names and saying nasty things to her in messages. Guess what?  She started taking screen shots. Of all of the messages. And then she posted them. On the Internet. On Facebook. And it went viral. The person I saw that posted it, lives here in NC. This originated in Seattle, WA.

I caught the first hint of it on Sunday. It is now Tuesday and this guy was found, on Facebook and it was not pretty people.  Don't get me wrong, I don't think what he did was right at all.  I think he's a horrible person and I would never want to go out with him or someone like him so I am thankful that I saw this (not that I ever plan to go to Seattle but, just in case, it's good information). He worked for some kind of law office. Maybe he doesn't anymore. He's removed everything from his facebook profile because let's face it, if there's a bad picture of you, the viral world will find it and it will become a meme.

I don't know where it goes from here. In some ways I feel sorry for him but I don't. The book was something to read and it made me think. Seeing it happen in real time, unbelievable.

Watch it my friends.