How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco's Life

Braithwaite’s reintegrative shaming theory draws on traditional criminological theories such as labelling, subcultural, opportunity, control, differential association and social learning theories (Braithwaite, 1989). John Braithwaite first put forward his theory of reintegrative shaming in his book, Crime, Shame

Bullying is very common in most schools in the United States Around three million United States students miss class every month just because of bullying. When Alex Libby shared his story he gave a voice to millions of children who suffer from bullying, because he shared his story it changed the way most people think of the effects of bullying. An example of bullying is there was a girl named Kelby Johnson who was mocked by teachers and students because she was a lesbian, she had to stop playing basketball because her ignorant teammates didn’t want to be near her. Alex Libby is one of the 13 million school children in the United States that is being bullied. Alex’s mom said “ Kid’s back in the day, could go home and be safe you can’t do that a lot now, now you can get bullied online.”

People started realizing the benefactors of bulling over the internet. The cyberbully method became an outbreak and now, it is one of the most common ways public shaming and humiliation start. Corresponding to influential decisions, politics associate in the persuasion of this concept. As many representatives or future candidates of the United States mock one’s opponent, it sends a message to everyone watching; its acceptable to publicly humiliate and shame someone to put oneself ahead of another. Women also relate to either being publicly shamed or publicly shaming one another. As the different period of times show the relation with public shaming, it seems to still be a reoccurring problem around the world. Social media, politics, and the different arguments about women are some of the vast contributions of the influences to public shaming and

the suggestion of abnormality, of having something to hide...was itself a punishable offense” (Orwell, 65). In 1984, looking suspicious or emotional in front of a telescreen was dangerous and considered a punishable offense. In the present day, social media is the equivalent to the telescreens, it’s the means by which individuals display themselves publicly. Posting the wrong thing on social media can be dangerous because if it’s public, it’s exposed to open interpretation. Jon Ronson from the New York Times Magazine published an article giving a few instances of people sharing controversial postings on social media and receiving a major backlash for it. Specifically, Ronson talks about a woman named Justine Sacco who tweeted, “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white!” Upon her arrival, she realized this tweet was trending. She was judged by her friends and family, and the tweet generated threats and harassment on the internet from the general public. As a result, Sacco lost her job and was scared to leave her own home. This incident is an example of the reasons why, in this day and age, we must be very careful with what we share publicly. Social media exemplifies of how our world is becoming like 1984. Any misstep in our words or actions can wind us

It’s common to argue that a perpetrator “deserves” to be shamed, but in fact human psychology doesn’t work this way. Many pedophiles, for instance, recognize that that they are inexorably—even biologically—bound to impulses that they themselves loathe. Does the shaming—through public registries for example—cause the pedophile to reform? Unlikely. Does it deter others from engaging in pedophilic acts, or does it drive them to darker corners and sneakier tactics?

In Keller's article, "The Twitter Trap," he discusses the positive and negative issues of social media and technology on today's youth. In his examples, he elaborates on the loss of humanity in how the necessity of real-life situations and conversations that make people alive in their souls is disappearing as social media continues to grow more addictive. With the overwhelming growth of social media, even the deemed "smart students" are losing their ability to pinpoint pattern in situations that to the earlier generation would consider obvious. Overall, Keller's main concern and point of the article states that," … my inner worrywart wonders whether the new technologies overtaking us may be eroding characteristics that are essentially human: our ability to reflect, our pursuit of meaning, genuine empathy, a sense of community connected by something deeper than snark or political affinity."

When we hear shaming our minds quickly go to someone being embarrassed and humanized for their past actions. In public view for people to create judgments and uncertainty about a behavior seen from a certain person. This description falls under the common form of shaming known as stigmatization, found in our criminal system stigmatization is disrespectful shaming, “where the offender is treated as a bad person. The offender is left with that stigma permanently” (Braithwaite, 2000, 282) due to the forgivingness found in this form of shaming. Stigmatization shaming only tends to bring more shame than a resolution so crime tends to increase the crimes because the offender feels like there no way out, so I might as well

Ronson also talks about how Google plays a role in the continuation of public shaming. Ronson quotes Jared Higgins, who says “What the first page looks like determines what people think of you” (Higgins 265). Through this quote, Ronson shows how public shaming ruins an individual for years to come. The results of their shaming incidents will always be at the top of Google’s search engine.

As an individual, it’s a part of life to make plenty of mistakes, but is public shaming the answer to solving it? In todays’ society, punishment for people is completely different from back in the Puritan days. For example, in the novel the Scarlett Letter, Hester Prynne commits adultery, which leads her to having to wear the letter “A” on her chest, which is a form of public humiliation but in this sense, it’s not right. This is Hester Prynne’s sin that she committed that she lives with forever and it shouldn’t be any of the public business for her to be humiliated even more. This is a form of public ridicule, reintegrative shaming where attention can be drawn by wrong doing, and in order for you to learn in life you have make some mistakes . Public shaming is immoral in today’s society because as an individual that has done something wrong, you will start to feel like an outcast besides having to endure humiliation for your actions.

Most people believe that public humiliation is cruel and unusual punishment, yet it seems to be the only thing working. Doxxing is when you take someone's personal info -info such as social security numbers or address- and post it for the world to see. Some people still see doxxing as ineffective and just flat out wrong as discussed Cole Stryker in “The Problem with Public Shaming” written in The Nation, Stryker notions that public shaming doesn't work and that people need to talk about its effects on people all around the world. Stryker discusses how doxxing and Scarlet Letters are one in the same and are equally bad to do, he even “And when it slithers its tentacles in a person’s life, we become desperate for some way to fight back—to

“Body shaming someone describes how mean the society can be to troll someone on their physical appearance” (Jain). Body-shaming people affects their self-esteem. People think it is normal to criticize the body of others because they are accustomed to do it every day, that sometimes they do not even realize it. Society body shames others all the time, instead of helping them feel secure and happy with their bodies. They want other people to look the way they want to be look at. Body shaming is affecting people physically and mentally.

Conformity: Jailer and Enemy John F. Kennedy once said, “Conformity is the jailer of freedom and the enemy of growth” (“John F. Kennedy”). This quote is most definitely true for any type of society. Whether it is the society in which John F. Kennedy lived in, present-day society, or the society that can be read about in Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World. In this novel, the characters have no other choice than to conform to the society in which they inhabit.

“Shame corrodes the very part of us that believes we are capable of change”(Brené Brown). In The Scarlet Letter, by Nathaniel Hawthorne, a woman is publicly shamed for having a child with a man who is not her husband. Another example of public shame can be seen in modern day articles “Florida ‘Scarlet Letter’ Law is Repealed by Gov. Bush,” by Dana Canedy, and “Houston Couple Gets ‘The Scarlet Letter’ Treatment.” Both talk of public shame that people have had to endure in the present day. Public shaming is not an effective punishment because it is a cruel and unusual punishment, it does not deter crime, and it can emotionally traumatize the one being shamed.

In today’s internet savvy world, ‘Shaming’ has become an aspect of core-competency. And this aspect holds the power to destroy lives and confidences. This issue has become so large in the past few years that an entire book (“So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed”) has been written focusing on this very topic. But who is responsible for this chaos? Is it the person engaging in bad behavior or the person pulling the curtain off of the act? The answer depends on whom you ask. Social media when used properly has proved to be a powerful tool against the powerful organizations and influential people. Giving voice to pain of millions.

Of course, shaming should be part of society due to the fact that it brings order and control among the people. Shaming controls people who perform unacceptable behavior that can cause great damage. It is extremely critical for any society to be in order since it brings peace and balance. But, in order for that to happen society must shame people who violate or break moral and social norms that are highly valued. According to Eric Posner, a professor at the University of Chicago Law School stated that, “Shaming is a form of social control... Shaming has always been extraordinarily important—often... shaming was a major source of public order”(sec. 2). Controlling individuals with shame is the