When public shaming is on the Internet, it can get brutal

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Podcasts Take Two

Mar 31, 2015

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When public shaming is on the Internet, it can get brutal

Author Jon Ronson talks about how teams of people, in the interest of publicly shaming someone, can backfire and cause deep harm to the targets.

Author Jon Ronson talks about how teams of people, in the interest of publicly shaming someone, can backfire and cause deep harm to the targets.

When you messed up nearly 200 years ago, you were publicly shamed with a stay in stocks and pillories.

Eventually we decided public humiliation was uncivilized, and the practice was phased out.

Now, shaming is back in a big way, thanks in no small part to the Internet.

It's a fascinating and frightening trend tackled by Jon Ronson in "So You've Been Publicly Shamed."