“I know I’m not alone when it comes to public humiliation. No one, it seems, can escape the unforgiving gaze of the Internet, where gossip, half-truths, and lies take root and fester. We have created, to borrow a term from historian Nicolaus Mills, a “culture of humiliation” that not only encourages and revels in Schadenfreude but also rewards those who humiliate others, from the ranks of the paparazzi to the gossip bloggers, the late-night comedians, and the Web “entrepreneurs” who profit from clandestine videos.

Yes, we’re all connected now. We can tweet a revolution in the streets or chronicle achievements large and small. But we’re also caught in a feedback loop of defame and shame, one in which we have become both perps and victims. We may not have become a crueler society—although it sure feels as if we have—but the Internet has seismically shifted the tone of our interactions. The ease, the speed, and the distance that our electronic devices afford us can also make us colder, more glib, and less concerned about the consequences of our pranks and prejudice. Having lived humiliation in the most intimate possible way, I marvel at how willingly we have all signed on to this new way of being.

In my own case, each easy click of that YouTube link reinforces the archetype, despite my efforts to parry it away: Me, America’s B.J. Queen. That Intern. That Vixen. Or, in the inescapable phrase of our 42nd president, “That Woman.”

It may surprise you to learn that I’m actually a person.”

-Monica Lewinsky

Just read an old Monica Lewinsky interview in Vanity Fair. It made me wonder amongst other things, “One woman really got crucified for something that two people did.” 16 years later and her name is still synonymous with presidential adultery, oral sex and office romance gone wrong. Yet Mr. Clinton’s name provokes accolades and general feting. She was a 22 year old….the president was 46! Bill was far older, experienced, wiser and A LOT MORE MARRIED than she was, yet she is the one whose reputation won’t let her keep a job. Double standard of life.

Anyway, story for another day. What struck me the most in the article was the excerpt above. We really need to think about the sort of society we are living in and bringing kids into; where global ridicule and humiliation of one person, usually a celebrity, is considered normal to us. Children and teens are humiliated into suicide, battered self-esteem and self-harm because of the power of a little ‘Enter’ button on a key board. Now, our private shames are no longer ours to bear alone. Today, little girls in China can mock a grown man crying on the western shores of the Zambezi river.

Today the knives and guns that kill and maim are smaller than one inch; little letters dancing beneath finger tips. Gives new meaning to nanotechnology, no?

Viva social media…#OrNah