From Ross Stapleton-Grey via email: “fyi this item, on the use of cellphone cameras and the Net for a global shaming campaign, and [now] imagine “intelligence agents” swapped in for “dog poop girl”…”
This story about a woman who refused to clean up after her dog in a subway car, and was subjected to net harrassment and public shaming as a result, is closely related to this previous entry about the persistence of images in cyberspace, as well as conscious plays on that persistence. The net as global memory and sense organ. But as Don Park notes, it’s also a warning about mob behavior in cyberspace. Raises the need to evolve new, net-savvy social norms.
Tangentially, in followup email, Ben Gross wrote:
I just listened to an uncut interview with Chuck Pahlaniuk by NPR’s
Rick Kleffel. In the interview they talk about complete shaming and
loss of face as the real horror in a secular society. I recommend at
least listening to this short section. In the MP3 below it starts at
14:55 although, I recommend starting at 12:27 for a better lead in.
The interview is much more about the nature of shock in today’s culture, but parts of it have some relevance to the “dog poop girl” discussion.
Finally, I did a check to see if I could find an actual image, to make sure that this wasn’t a net rumor.