Persuasive Essay On Social Media Shaming

Sanders was right. At the time of his writing social media was just beginning to take root in our society, Facebook was in it’s infancy, and twitter had been founded year prior. As the two social media giants engrossed us all, like perfect dancers, we danced to the megaphone’s noise. This spread gave us all a megaphone and Jon Ronson’s book So You’ve been Publicly Shamed explores just how we have been using it. But while Saunders was right that we would abuse this megaphone and dumb down our society, the hatred and vitriol it has spread in our society is something that he never could have guessed. The book explores public shaming, evens where many individuals attacked a person for trivial reasons, ruining their lives, hurting their future, and scarring them until the day they die. An avalanche of hatred covers and suffocates this person, but not single one of those snowflakes feels responsible, no one of those snowflakes ever thinks how their actions might are hurting the person, nonetheless, the person dies; a life ruined, and not a person to blame. The megaphone and the distraction it causes allows some to excuses their actions and do things that would be otherwise reprehensible.

Social Media is a form of communication in which a person shares information, personal ideas, and thoughts online. The foundation of social media began in 1997 when the first social media site Six Degrees was developed. Since 1997, social media has become an iconic name and has become part of this generation's conversation. There are over 100 million people using social media to gain access to the digital world, with over 20 social media sites including Twitter, Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram (Milanovic 1). Roughly 80 percent of teens and 20 percent of adults use social media daily and almost half of the users were bullied or criticized for a single comment. Comments that include discrimination, sexism, or political beliefs can be retweeted to thousands in a matter of hours. “Accusations go viral, globally, within hours, and instead of having dozens of angry voices baying for your blood, you have tens of thousands” (Haley 1). Although social media has made it easier to communicate these sites, make it easier to be critical or prejudiced to others online instead of face-to-face.

Having demonstrated how the use of technology can influence young generations, Stryker goes on to say that punishing those who make bad and or racist remarks only breeks further hatred. Stryker uses a hypothetical example to support his claim and explain why. He continues to go further and give real world examples of how a New York City EMT was fired because of his racist tweets on his online profile (Stryker 588). This strengthened Stryker’s position on how publicly shaming an individual only causes more harm and problems.

Statistics show that public humiliation is one of the most common fears. As many admit to this fear, many also grasp to this concept and shame one another for absurd conditions. In the Puritan Era, many methods were used to publicly shame someone for their wrong doing. One of their common methods was to openly tell their “sin” to the whole community. One of their extreme approaches was hanging someone. This showed the public to follow the regulations of the town and do not do anything against them. Fast forward to modern times, the scheme of humiliating one another changed drastically. For instance, many occurrences pertain from social media. In 1994, the first site of social media was created. From this point on, millions of different sites

Social media has been a topic of debate for years. Some people are strongly against any use of it while others like the instant connection it provides. A major concern over social media is the lasting effects it has on teenagers. Social media can affect teenagers through many ways including things like their self-esteem. Cyberbullying is a raging topic of discussion centered around teens social media use. It can also effect their people skills and create a lack of community involvement. Some parents think that watching what their children do on social media is an invasion of privacy but is your concern for their privacy greater than your concern for their safety? Social media poses a great danger to today’s children. It can affect many aspects of their lives.

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.

Social media has become one of the main methods for public shaming. Many activists have used it as a way of getting attention with the media, but others have used it as a form of entertainment to watch people’s lives get burned to the ground. Though public shaming can be very entertaining it can also be hurtful and can even cause people to lose their jobs along with their self respect. The article How One Stupid Tweet Blew Up Justine Sacco’s Life, written by Jon Ronson, describes how the punishment for using social media inappropriately can be detrimental to your future

The era of technology went from being fun and games to social media, ways to talk to strangers, and keep close with family. I think that when people misuse social media it can make something good turn ugly, such as a simple hello to/from a stranger. Putting an opinion online about someone or something. Posting profanity pictures and hateful comments or posts. For something to go viral all it needs is publicity such as likes, comments, and shares, and then it is out there, where someone can see it and take it the wrong way or draw attention sexual predators.

The idea of public shaming as a punishment is an idea that goes back centuries in history. In modern times the setting of public shaming has shifted from outside in public to inside on the internet. People are attacked and publically shamed for all to see through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and much more. The idea of media shaming is an important idea to consider and to question about the effects that it has on a person’s life. People should care about the issue because it can happen to anyone, at anytime, from just one simple mistake. The idea of public shaming through the internet is not an acceptable form of punishment in modern society because it can cause deep and long lasting psychological damage, cause people to lose their jobs, and allows the perpetrators to hide behind a screen and remain unidentified.

Since the birth of social media people have argued whether it has a positive or negative effect on society. Social media outlets like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram give people a chance to stay connected. Although, with the power of social media comes the possibility of cyber bullying. While there are some negatives associated with social media, the positives in communication all around, has made the world stronger and a better place to live in.

In this paper, I argue that social media may be an outlet for freedom of expression but it has been widely misused since there is little control over social media. The aim is to convince the reader that social media is a ground for insults, threats and bullying, given the freedom of expression and lack of governance that

“Social networks are successful because they offer widespread participation, but at the same time, they open their users up to unnecessarily dangerous exposure.” (Herring, Mark Y.. Social Media and the Good Life: Do They Connect? Jefferson NC: McFarland, 2015. ProQuest ebrary. Web. 10 September 2016.). Social media (sometimes defined as social network/networks) can be used to promote your ideas. Promoting your ideas through social media is a great way your voice to be heard by millions of other users using the same social media you use every day. Promoting may get you discovered by celebrities/authors/people who are looking for good marketing. However, some ideas/opinions you choose to express may cause an uproar of cyberbullying and may cause negative attention to be directed towards you, which nobody wants to deal with. Communication is also a great advantage that social media

Worldwide, public shaming should be put to an end for the greater good of all people because it leads to destroyed reputations and ultimately embarrassment. The majority of the time, shaming is based on false accusations made and can even lead to the end of careers for public figures. In today’s day in age, news spreads through media in the blink of an eye and as we have seen from Jon Ronson, a victim of shame can go from being innocent and ordinary to being negatively famous around the world for a simple tweet. Even though focusing attention on heinous crimes can be useful, overall public shaming is a negative aspect of our world today because as humans we feel the need to enforce our opinions that people must act a certain way in society and by doing so, we take it to the extreme in the media where it produces the opposite effect.

"The immediacy and fast pace of the internet can be magical,” but it can also become a nightmare that ruins a person’s life (Source C “Is the Internet a Mob Without Consequences?”).  The world believes that public humiliation is an effective punishment, but it is overused and ineffective.  Public shaming is a dire term due to its high usage. It dates back to the 1500s. The Puritan society gave their people this type of punishment, as seen in Source A, The Scarlet Letter.  Puritans hoped that the sinner  would show God their remorse after being publicly mocked.  Now, in the 21st century, public shaming is still taking full effect  because of social media, such as Instagram and Facebook. Examples of victims that could not escape public shame are Monica Lewinsky, Justine Sacco, and Hester Prynne. In addition Tyler Clementi’s public shaming drove him to such despair that he took his own life, seeing no hope of recovering his dignity amongst his peers. Public shaming creates sometimes irreparable consequences that  impact a person socially, professionally, and personally.

Social media. We have all heard of it. We have all raved about it at some point in our lives. There is no doubt; it plays an imperative part of people’s lives today – users are reliant on social media. It is great that Mark Zuckerberg reminds us to say, “Happy Birthday” to our friends. Yet, we have all seen the dangers it can cause. From identity fraud to cyberbullying - we become exposed to the dangers of the internet. Not only is it hackers and frauds that cause destruction, but social networking posts. Every day, you scroll through Facebook, or Instagram - liking, sharing and commenting on posts. What people don’t see is how words on a ‘status’ or ‘tweet’ can hurt someone. They can’t see that a person’s feelings behind the screens on a computer have been destroyed, because they can’t see what they don’t want to see.