This reminded me very much of Jon Ronson’s So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed- it feels like this is exactly where those he encountered could have found themselves, if technology were a little further advanced. In particular, it’s hard not to think of Justine Sacco, whose story of a joke gone terribly wrong is perhaps one the protagonist would have done well to have been familiar with before trying to be funny on social networks. A misunderstanding can have very unpleasant consequences when you’re faced with group outrage in cyberspace. Without the real world interactions that create a sense of acceptable behaviour, abuse is apparently justifiable to so many individuals, and this is a good illustration of how it would only get worse in a more connected world.
From “No Signal”- art by John Aggs, (I can’t find which of the 4 writers wrote this one....), in Adventures in Science
