Book Review: “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed” by Jon Ronson

For starters, I’ve got to say how many times I’ve recommended Ron Johnson’s book So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed¹ only to remember later that his name is Jon Ronson. (Sorry, Jon)

I have not been the victim of a “jump on the bandwagon” public shaming (yet… and never, I hope). We are now all familiar with the unsavory nature of cancel culture and mindless censorship. The public whipping that some have incurred, whether unjustly or justly, has sobered us all and led to a more tentative, fearful posture for us all.

Ronson’s book is a truly unsettling but deeply interesting collection of stories. He tracks down, interviews and recounts the public shaming experiences of some really ordinary people who found themselves the target of venomous social media mobs.

The book is an easy read, and the stories keep you engaged in a “can’t look away” kind of way. I wish Ronson had toned down his language in places. His regular profanity doesn’t add to the book’s importance at all.

Here are a few notable quotes:

You’ll notice that all of these came in the last part of the book. Ronson’s conclusions are worth digesting.

“We are creating a world where the smartest way to survive is to be bland.” (266)

“We need to think twice about raining down vengeance and anger as our default position.” (260)

“We have the power to determine the severity of some punishments. And so we have to think about what level of mercilessness we feel comfortable with.” (275)

“The biggest lie is the Internet is about you. We like to think of ourselves as people who have a choice and taste and personalized content. But the Internet isn’t about us. It’s about the companies that dominate the data flows of the Internet.” (276)

“Google makes money from searches. Google’s ad revenue in December 2013 was $4.69 billion. There were 12.2 billion Google searches. That means Google made 38¢ for every search query. That December there were 1.2 million people searching the name Justine Sacco. In other words, Justine’s catastrophe instantaneously made Google $456,000.” (276)

“On the conservative side, it means Google made $120,000 from the destruction of Justine Sacco. Maybe that’s an accurate figure. Or maybe Google made more. But one thing’s certain. Those of us who did the actual annihilating? We got nothing. We were unpaid interns for Google.” (277)

His comments about feedback loops were profound. He quoted documentary maker Adam Curtis as calling feedback loops “a new kind of democracy.”

Curtis said:

“[They] locked people off in the world they started with and prevents them from finding out anything different. They get trapped in a system of feedback reinforcement… So what you get is a kind of mutual grooming… information becomes a currency through which you buy friends and become accepted into the system. That makes it very difficult for bits of information that challenge the accepted views to get in. They tend to get squeezed out. When someone says something or does something that disturbs the agreed protocols of the system, the other parts react furiously and try to eject that destabilizing fragment and regain stability. And so the idea that there is another world of other people who have other ideas is marginalized in our lives.” (280-81)

“I suddenly feel with social media like I’m tiptoeing around an unpredictable, angry, unbalanced parent he might strike out at any moment. It’s horrible.… We are defining the boundaries of normality by tearing apart the people outside of it.” (281)

“I was sick of us forever making damaged people our playthings.” (307)

“The least we can do for those people is to be patient and curious instead of instantly judgmental. And when we find ourselves shaming people in a manner that echoes their transgression, that should set off alarm bells.” (309)

“Maybe there are two types of people in the world: those who favor humans over ideology, and those who favor ideology over humans. I prefer humans to ideology, but right now the ideologues are winning, and they’re creating a stage for a constant artificial high dramas where everyone is either a magnificent hero or a sickening villain.” (309-310)

“As unpleasant as it will surely be for you, when you see an unfair or an ambiguous shaming unfold, speak up on behalf of the same person. A babble of opposing voices – that’s democracy. The great thing about social media was how it gave a voice to voiceless people. Let’s not turn it into a world where the smartest way to survive is to go back to being voiceless.” (310)

What about you?

• Have you ever jumped on the bandwagon of shaming without reflection?
• Do you think it’s primarily one side of the current culture wars that dominates cancel culture, or are both sides involved?
• Would you be willing to speak up on behalf of someone being shamed – even if what they’ve done is shameworthy? Why or why not?

I’m reminded of the indescribably wonderful counsel from scripture. It applies to our day and any day.

“My dear brothers and sisters, understand this: Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to anger, for human anger does not accomplish God’s righteousness.”²

1. So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed by Jon Ronson (Riverhead Books, 2015) [↩]
2. James 1:19-20[↩]