Shame Nation: The Global Epidemic of Online Hate

Please think before you post (or) The art of being safe in cyberspace

Ideally, technology should work for us. This isn’t the case in our hyperconnected world. On the contrary, information technology, especially social media, has taken away our privacy and left all of us vulnerable to the possibility of relentless personal attack online. One inappropriate post or a tweet, taken out of context, can became a disaster, which can destroy your reputation and literarily upend your world. We now live in a world analogous to the one depicted in George Orwell’s dystopian novel, 1984. It appears that the “genie is out of the bottle” and there is no going back. However, Shame Nation can help online users to navigate this craziness.

The first section of this book highlights the numerous examples of how people are using the anonymity that the internet provides to behave poorly online. Scheff cites many painful stories of online bullying, extortion, shaming and harassment. In the second portion, she provides strategies for protecting yourself online and how to survive a cyberattack. The final chapters are hopeful and show how organizations are attempting to combat online hate through education and advocacy.

Shame Nation is very timely for the age in which we live. It will hopefully provide readers with methods for staying safe in an online environment.