Emi ·
I was taking a walk around Valencia when I found Jon Ronson’s book “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed” in one of those cute street public libraries. I usually check those out to see if something catches my eye and this was the first time I actually found something I wanted to read for a long time.
I remember the book being a big deal when it came out in 2015, but I didn’t know much about it. Me being a bit terminally online makes me scared of missing out on what’s happening. When I’m not online for a long period of time (basically more than a day… I know, it is that sad), I get the feeling that when I come back I won’t know what’s going on. That’s of course never true, when I come back, everything is as terrible as I left it. But I’m giving you this context because when I started reading this book, I was immediately taken aback because the book opens with stories about Twitter. Surely, 10 years is enough to make a book about Twitter feel dated. The internet moves too fast, and things are VERY different now, right? New owner, new name, more nazis. You know, the new Twitter.
To my surprise, the book is still extremely relevant today. I would even say that it is more relevant now than ever.
The book is a collection of stories, written like a “podcast” in text form. It goes over concrete examples of people being publicly shamed online and how they dealt with the aftermath, which is something we never get to see. I’m sure that most of us have participated in a public shaming session on Twitter, but we are usually on the accuser side, not so often as the target.
For the writing side, I was pleasantly surprised to see how the “podcast” format of storytelling works so well in written form. I wonder if this book is responsible for many podcasts being structured this way, or if it is the other way around.
I don’t want to give too much of the book away, and I can’t write half as good as the author, so if you haven’t heard of the book or haven’t gotten to it yet, I really recommend it. While it doesn’t have any clear-cut conclusion, visiting each one of the stories makes you think about them deeply.
Even if you don’t participate in the ring of hell that Twitter is, I think that in an increasingly online-only world, you’ll find value in it. So I would love to pass it on to you as it came to my hands, but a digital recommendation will have to suffice this time 🫴📕