Once upon a time, you could joke with a friend about packing on a few pounds or point out that their kid is about to stroll into traffic and no one would take offense or accuse you of “fat shaming” or “mommy shaming” them.
In our online digital world we live in, we can no longer point out anything we disagree with or find critical of others without being accused of being a “shamer.”
I am hopeful that at some point, this obsession with shaming the shamers simmer down.
When you think of it, to shame a shamer makes you a shamer too, no?
Our coddled, participation-prize culture will not let anyone upset the feelings or sensitivities of their vulnerable friends even on mundane things.
This is true even if said friend opened up the door to criticism by posting private moments on social media. I mean even legit questionability about their judgments are OFF. THE.TABLE.
But…shhsss! What about?…Nope sssshut it!
Every body who lets slip through their typing fingers some level of judgment about something she or he sees scroll through their social media feed is a Cyber Bully.
So long as we’re creating new categories of shaming, I’ve come up with a list of things that people shame us about on social media that can be added.
Grammar Police Shamed- When you post a long soliloquy on your position of a pop culture topic or policy and the first person to comment under your post only do so to point out that you used the word “your” or “their” wrong.
Selfie Shamed- When you bump into someone you haven’t seen in a while at a party and she rolls her eyes at you when you ask to take an Usie ‘for the Gram.’
Facebook Shamed– When you see someone you are FB friends with but who doesn’t post often and they tell you “you’re always on Facebook!” Like, shut up. How would you know I’m always on there unless you are too?
Cheapskate Shamed- When you get someone a nice gift at one of those discount stores like Ross, TJ Maxx or Marshalls and you have to spend a bunch of time removing the discount price sticker they practically glued on the worst possible spot on the item, like the glass of the picture frame, and you feel bad because you know had you spent more money and gotten them something from Things Remembered or Macy’s, you wouldn’t have had to do all that scraping and soaking off the price glue.
Being a Petty Jealous Friend Shamed — When you get called out for tagging a busted looking photo of a friend who normally looks snatched In all her Instagram pics because her social media game is on point like that but she looks like the rest of us in non-staged and hyper filtered photos and you didnt’ think anyone would make YOU the enemy because you thought we all agreed she needed to be exposed.
Smart phone addicted shamed — When your date takes a photo of you on your phone and posts it on Twitter or Snapchat and everybody comments or retweets it and eventually some journalist embeds the photo in their article about the “10 Rude Things You Can Do On A Date” and then your mother sees it and calls to tell you this is why you’ll never be married.
There are so many ways people are made to feel bad about their choices on line. Add Yours.
This post was written in fun but I wholly expect someone to shame me for it.
Originally posted on Medium