The Internet is increasingly becoming a vehicle for public shaming for those who enrage communities by thoughtless or reprehensible conduct. Holly Jones, a hair stylist in Indianapolis, is the latest target of the collective condemnation. Jones went on Facebook to complain that Kilroy’s Bar N’ Grill had ignored her needs on New Year’s Eve to help some “Junkie” who died. It turned out to be a 57-year old lady celebrating with her husband and son. Fortunately she survived. Jones’ reputation did not.
Jones was upset in having her celebration interrupted on New Year’s Eve: “After the way we were treated when we spent $700+ and having our meal ruined by watching a dead person being wheeled out from an overdose my night has been ruined!!.” As if that is not enough, she continued to bemoan that
“The manager told us someone dying was more important then us being there making us feel like our business didn’t matter, but I guess allowing a Junkie in the building to overdose on your property is more important then paying customers who are spending a lot of money!!”
Kilroy’s manager joined the rising virtual mob and celebrated the loss of Jones’ business.
Even Serenity Salon, where Jones works, went online to distance the business from Jones.
In the meantime, the daughter of the heart attack victim, Tohnna Wymer, created a GoFundMe page to help with costs associated with her mother’s medical treatment.
The trend toward Internet shaming appears to be growing. While it can sometimes have value as a form of local community action, it can also have negative elements as a form of vigilantism. Once selected as a story of the day, a person can be ruined and hounded by the resulting scrutiny. It is hard to be sympathetic over a person who writes such cruel and narcissistic things. However, the stigma and outrage over this posting is likely to remain with her for her lifetime. Indeed, some businesses would likely fire such an employee to avoid the public backlash.
Putting aside the justified anger, do you believe that level of scrutiny in such cases is commensurate with the offense given to the public?
I agree with Six. The blowback from this seems like disproportionate impact for something posted by someone at 2 AM at (or just after) a New Year’s Eve party. In all likelihood, she had been drinking and she clearly didn’t even understand the situation taking place around her (thus the mistake about the other patron being a junkie and being dead).
En vino veritas is a cute notion, but it’s like any other broad generalization – a rough guideline that is often wrong or misleading. Instances of occasional drunken blather aren’t consistent windows into the soul and if we were unfortunate enough to remember everything we have ever said near the end of a long night of partying, we would be quick to recognize this. En vino ineptias is less sexy, but more likely to be true.
BTW, before the bipolar fallacy rears its head, this isn’t to say that Ms. Jones is any sort of paragon of virtue or even necessarily a nice person in everyday life. It’s just to say that we DON’T know enough about her to say anything other than that she was misbehaving in this one instance. Tarring her whole existence based on this incident is neither fair nor necessary.
Here is a more important Indianapolis story about a lovely young woman murdered by evil thugs.
http://abcnews.go.com/US/teen-charged-killing-indianapolis-pastors-pregnant-wife/story?id=35366994
I can’t feel sorry for her – she made the post with her real name.
DBQ, En vino veritas. Seeking truth is my biz. And, one of the best ways is over adult beverages.
Yes, it was disgusting and awful but no doubt she sobered up and realized as much the next day. She denounced the action, apologized and did her best to remove the post.
I wouldn’t say ‘ruin her life’. She isn’t worth that much effort.
What you say and do when you are drunk or even just tipsy is a window into who you really are when your super ego isn’t controlling you. She let the lid off of her Id.
The people who know her, or thought they did, certainly have a clearer picture into the nasty, self centered, biatchy soul that she is hiding most of the time.
As I said. Any guys who think about dating or getting serious with this horrible person….RUN AWAY!
“It’s true, the Internet is forever, so any future employer or person with an interest can google her name and read this sorry posting of hers years from now.”
Unless you are the US government vetting an immigrant’s application. Then, they are prohibited from scrutinizing their social media. Hence why the San Berdu shooter was able to come over on a finance visa, after posting red flags on social media.