So You've Been Publicly Shamed
by Jon Ronson · first published 2015
50% recommend50% neutral
Why HN recommends it
Empathetic, balanced look at internet shaming, told through interviews with people on the receiving end of online outrage; suits anyone curious about mob behavior, and those building social media products.
Summarised by Claude from recommending comments
"From the internationally bestselling author of The Psychopath Test, a captivating and brilliant exploration of one of our world's most overlooked forces. For the past three years, Jon Ronson has been immersing himself in the world of modern-day public shaming-meeting famous shamees, shamers, and bystanders who have been impacted. This is the perfect time for a modern-day Scarlet Letter-a radically empathetic book about public shaming, and about shaming as a form of social control. It has become such a big part of our lives it has begun to feel weird and empty when there isn't anyone to be fur
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There's a very interesting thought experiment devised by the human rights lawyer Clive Stafford Smitg and outlined at the end of the excellent book "So You've Been Publicly Shamed" by Jon Ronson. Quoting from the book; “Let me ask you three questions,” he said. “And then you’ll see it my way. Question One: What’s the worst thing that you have ever done to someone? It’s okay.…
on “Do We Still Need Prisons?” ↗There was an interesting book recently called "So You've Been Publicly Shamed" by Jon Ronson which explored what happened when the mob mentality doxxed someone, for better or for worse. I think this unfortunate situation is clear evidence that you should avoid publishing your photo,…
on “Amateur Sleuths Aim to Identify Charlottesville Marchers, but Sometimes Misfire” ↗"so you've been publicly shamed" by jon ronson goes into this, I don't remember if there's specific stories about personal bloggers, but there's stories from normal, everyday people.
on “Blog Anonymously” ↗The book "So You've Been Publicly Shamed" by Jon Ronson, is an excellent look at this topic. He interviews a number of people who have been the focus of such "mob attacks", and spends enough time on each to show how they happen, and what the…
on “Life after an internet mob attack” ↗This is fascinating, you should submit this as its own post. I read So You've Been Publicly Shamed[1] recently which detailed more stories like this. It should be required reading in every high school. The Internet mob is a cultural phenomenon of the current moment that we aren't going to look back…
on “Goa’s last typewriter repair shop defied the digital age” ↗You and anyone interested in this should read Jon Ronson's book "So You've Been Publicly Shamed". An excellent, rational, balanced take on this issue. Also check out the works of Dr. Gad Saad. If you'd rather not take the time to read their work, they've both given speeches on this and participated…
on “Adventures in Twitter Censorship [pdf]” ↗"So You've Been Publicly Shamed", by Jon Ronson, and "The Invaders: How Humans and Their Dogs Drove Neanderthals to Extinction", by Pat Shipman, are my two best reads this year (that were published in 2015). The first is a great analysis…
on “Ask HN: Best books you've read in 2015” ↗I recommend "So You've Been Publicly Shamed" by Jon Ronson. He had the opportunity to work fairly closely with one of these companies as they did some work for one of the people you likely remember making the social media crucifixion circuit a…
on “UC Davis spent thousands to scrub pepper spray references from Internet” ↗Jon Ronson's So You've Been Publicly Shamed (https://www.amazon.co.uk/So-Youve-Been-Publicly-Shamed/dp/03...) is an interesting book that goes into some detail on the moral outrage and abuse side of social media.
on “Twitter's Fucked” ↗I'd highly recommend Jon Ronson's book "So You've Been Publicly Shamed" for more on this sort of thing. He discusses online lynch mobs and speaks to some of those at the receiving end of the internet's outrage.
on “What Emotion Goes Viral the Fastest? (2014)” ↗…and sticking them up on a sort of wall of shame. I particularly appreciated the tweet branding us "software terrorists". (Btw, this nonsense is exactly the same mob behaviour Jon Ronson talks about in So, You've Been Publicly Shamed - which I highly recommend).
on “The Realities of Being a FOSS Maintainer” ↗Jon Ronson's book on this topic, So You've Been Publicly Shamed, is another insightful look at the wild world internet-fueled shaming. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_You%27ve_Been_Publicly_Sham...
on “Shame Storm” ↗If you want to go deeper and learn a bit more about public shaming (from both sides), I highly recommend Jon Ronson’s book (the audiobook is even better) - ‘And so you’ve been publicly shamed’ which is where a lot for he details in this article are sourced from. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/So_You%27ve_Been_Publicly_Sham...
on “The Most Damaging Tweet Ever” ↗Jon Ronson’s book “So You’ve been Publicly Shamed” touches on this. Less from the angle of PC culture and more about anger on Twitter. I think it’s a good book and interesting even if you disagree with the conclusions.
on “Those who exercise free speech should also defend it even when it’s offensive” ↗I would say that Jon Ronson's book "So You've Been Publicly Shamed" (mentioned in the article), is also excellent. I would especially recommend it for anyone building social media tech.
on “Internet mob justice can easily destroy innocent lives (2019)” ↗