The Social Media Shame Machine Is In Overdrive Right Now
Because we know so little - and have so little faith in our leaders - we are scrambling for some sense of order. That often means leveling judgment on others.
Anne Helen Petersen
BuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on April 15, 2020, at 11:39 a.m. ET
"About a month ago, Amelia, 25, started experiencing symptoms in line with COVID-19. She was able to get tested, the results came back positive, and she immediately went into self-isolation, where she weathered her relatively mild symptoms. She has since fully recovered, as determined by her health care providers; with their approval, she has been taking walks, going grocery shopping, and picking up takeout while observing social distancing measures.
“Still, my friends are giving me shit for going outside,” she told me, “and basically implying that I am infecting the world and killing people by going outdoors. They don’t especially care if my food is running out or about me much at all. They only care that I am clearly doing a bad thing by going outdoors — even though I’m not.”
Almost all of this criticism, Amelia said, is directed at her via social media — in comments and DMs on Instagram and Twitter. Which is part of why she asked me to use a pseudonym: Her real name is unique, and she doesn’t want people finding her and directing even more anger her way."
BREAK:
"That’s the feeling I want to keep close — even online, where everyone’s mad and no one seems to know anything. The internet’s always kinda felt that way, but somehow it feels even more so today:
Trolls are trollier, influencers are falling for QAnon theories
celebrities are flailing around to find the right tone, charlatans are shilling snake oil, and everyone’s yelling about everyone else. I don’t think we can dramatically change it, really — not so long as this authority vacuum remains in place. But we don’t have to fuel it, either.
That doesn’t mean ignoring the class- and race-based stratifications that make this virus affect people differently. It doesn’t mean pretending the virus does not discriminate or suggesting that everyone’s struggle is even close to equal. But it does mean we can remember that the most effective way to diffuse collective action — and the sweeping, systemic changes it can spark — has always been to turn those who are suffering against one another."
moar:
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/annehelenpetersen/social-media-shaming-policing-behavior
tell me sweetie whats my name
just in case we missed it