Public Shaming

There is much controversy surrounding public shaming at the moment. While some parents think it’s a good idea to publicly humiliate their child online for misbehaving, it can have severe negative consequences on the child. Personally, I do not believe parents should embarrass their child as punishment. Children, especially teens, can be easily embarrassed in addition to already having low self-esteem. Allowing the entire world to see an embarrassing photo or video causes even more distress on the kid. This is entirely the wrong approach parents should be taking to punish their child.

Along with public shaming by parents, people on social media are quick to humiliate someone even after a small blunder. It is much easier to embarrass and publicly shame someone online than it is in the real world. People are able to hide behind a computer and become anonymous. We do not consider all the possible reasons for that person’s actions or how us shaming them could affect their life. None of us could ever know the whole story for why someone committed a “shameful” act. We need to be more conscious of what we post and how that could harm another individual. People have committed suicide over all the negative feedback they receive from users online.

Ultimately, we should be more aware of what we post online and think about how it could impact someone’s life. “If you don’t have anything nice to say then don’t say anything at all.” If it’s not impacting their life in a positive way, then we shouldn’t post it at all.