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We all know the story by now or maybe not all. Let me give you a brief recap of the events as they unfolded. A tweep decided to name and shame a con who had conned her off some money while trying to acquire a phone. So she decided to let the story be known but chose to hide the identity of the con artist and so the drama ensued from there. It all blew up after a fellow tweep commented that she was hiding the con artist’s identity because he had a hold on her, in this case insinuating that the victim must have slept with the con artist. And the rest as they say is history.
I have come to believe that social media is like a blank canvas next to the wall of an open street; you get to choose what you put up and leave behind but have no control over what spews over from what you left behind. To me that’s the pro and also the con of the networks. We chose what we want to let out there but unfortunately social media networks draw a very fine line between public and private space. So raises the question if we should – as both the one posting and the one commenting- take into consideration (or rather take to heart) each other’s baggage if I may put it so. To some extent social media has ended up as an online journal of sort but when we decide to put up our personal stories we leave it open for various interpretations and misinterpretations.
As the person posting should you take offense and hit back to the various reactions that may be drawn from the post one has put up? I somewhat agree with not posting the name of the con artist but maybe not all share in my view. So, to name or not to shame, that is the question.