The internet, specifically social media, is a place where words and intentions get twisted more than any place else. You can say one thing and it gets interpreted into many different ways, usually in a negative connotation. You make one mistake and it’s instantly out there for everyone to see, for everyone to talk about, for everyone to shame you about. The first person I think about when it comes to internet shaming is YouTuber James Charles.
James Charles is a beauty influencer on Social Media. One day, he posted a promotion video for vitamins that are supposed to strengthen your hair. Tati Westbrook, a friend of James Charles, was immediately offended because she, too, makes similar vitamins and he was promoting her competition. A few weeks later, Tati Westbrook posted a rant on YouTube about James Charles. She claimed that James Charles manipulates men into having sex with him and other actions. She even gave a specific example of when James tried to come onto a straight waiter. Following the posting of this video, James Charles lost three million subscribers and received thousands of hateful messages. All because, initially, he posted a video promoting a brand of hair vitamins. I think that James Charles’s first video was taken completely out of context. Tati shouldn’t have posted a rant video just to get back at James for supporting another company. That should’ve been a private conversation - not a public one. The purpose of Tati’s video was solely to break down James Charles’s career. She knew the kind of audience her video would reach: people with tons of subscribers and influencers. She also knew how her audience would react to the information she was giving them. No one wants to support someone who sexually assaults others, even if they aren’t 100% that’s the whole truth. People were harassing James Charles and unfollowing him before they even heard his side of the story. Essentially, this all happened because Tati’s feelings were hurt. Which, she had reason to. But she didn’t have a reason to go and destroy someone’s life because her feelings were hurt. This wasn’t the right solution to the betrayal she felt. Tati should’ve privately contact James Charles about how she felt about his promotion. This could’ve resulted in not only a heartfelt apology from James Charles, but a promotion of her product as well. In “So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed,” Ron Swanson comments, “A life had been ruined. What was it for: just some social media drama? I think our natural disposition as humans is to plod along until we get old and stop. But with social media, we’ve created a stage for constant artificial high drama. Every day a new person emerges as a magnificent hero or a sickening villain. It’s all very sweeping, and not the way we actually are as people.” He says this while analyzing one of his cases in his book. I think this comment perfectly encaptures James Charles’ downfall with Tati. Tati exploited him as a means of drama and to make herself feel better. She made him into a “sickening villain” in order to turn everyone against him because he had hurt her. I don’t believe public shaming to ever be a good thing, and the internet has just created more of a means to engage in it. Although James Charles had done terrible things, this wasn’t the right circumstances to bring them to light. Ruining his career was a means of revenge and not a means of “you’ve hurt me, now let’s figure this out.” Below, I've included a Tweet James Charles sent out after posting his apology video on YouTube.
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AuthorI am a Belmont Student taking a Digital Literacy class! Archives
November 2019
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