A few weeks ago, I was reading comments on articles about the boy who had fallen into the gorilla pit and I was horrified by the outpouring of hatred for the boy's mother. To be honest, I knew this would be the reaction of many, and I turned to the comments to confirm my suspicions. Even still, it made me sad to see my suspicions confirmed - that so many people could say so many hurtful things without understanding her situation (or parenthood in general, really). One comment led me to this book - the person wrote something about how they always look at situations like these differently since they read So You've Been Publicly Shamed. 
 And like a true bibliophile, I now had to read the book. 
 I highly recommend Ronson's investigation into the fascinating (and kind of terrifying) world of public shame. He not only covers the evolution of public shaming (mostly fueled by social media sites like Twitter and Facebook), but considers why people become so ruthless and how that ruthlessness affects the targets. I could see this being a good assigned read for students studying communications (particularly PR) or psychology. 
 When Justine Sacco's name popped up, I had a vague recollection of her dumb AIDS tweet, but beyond that I had forgotten about her. Surely that ill-advised tweet hadn't totally ruined her life? I was wrong - beyond the unbelievably vulgar and violent backlash she received from people hiding behind their Twitter feeds, she also lost her job. Ronson gets in touch with her and others who have been shamed, gets their side of the story, and considers the motives and effects of public shaming in general. 
 Ronson is pretty thorough in his investigation, and he seemed to connect pretty well with these people who often try to hide themselves from the public after their shamings. This is a book that really gets you thinking about just how crazy the internet is in general - and how things can be interpreted incorrectly out of context. I think everyone should be thinking twice about what they post on social media anyway, but you really do have to be smart about what you decide to share if you want to avoid the wrath of the internet.