Blog 11

The topic discussed in class this week was the plague of public shaming vectored by social media. More specifically, we looked at parents using social media as a means to punish their kids through embarrassment. We watched a multitude of videos of parents disciplining their children and posting that for the world to see online. Many of the videos were strongly condemned such as a father shaving his daughter’s head and another father shooting his daughter’s laptop. Some of the punishments were tamer such as a father making his son run a short way to school in the morning. However, all of these means of parenting receive a failing grade in my book for one critical error, posting the punishment on social media.

There has been heated debate for years on how to properly parent kids, whether it be through punishment or reinforcement, and the severity of each. However, the current day and age has introduced a new tactic of public shaming kids on social media that some parents are exploiting to control their child’s behavior. I disapprove of this method and think it has deleterious effects further reaching than simple behavior management. Shaming anyone to the degree that social media can offer is bad, but shaming a child is much worse. A child is constantly comparing them self to others and developing their identity. When you publicly humiliate them in front of all of their peers and the rest of the world, it is a huge slash to their character. You can discipline a child behind closed doors and correct the behavior without having to erode their sense of self-esteem and worth.  

I also think that posting punishments online says a lot about the parent. Why would they feel the need to showcase their parenting methods to the entire world? Are they proud of what they are doing and want to show off their authority? Social media is used for a lot of things these days but public humiliating people, especially children, does not need to be on that list.