Justine Sacco During The Industrial Revolution

In today’s society, humans are constantly evolving and trying to find the next best thing. The Industrial Revolution technically ended in the 19th century, but technological advancements have only grown even more rapidly since then. Along with the immense transformation in technology, the means of which people communicate have changed tremendously as well. Today social media plays a great role in how a lot of people communicate and serves as a quick and easy way to interact with people all over the world. While social media is a useful tool to connect with others, Justine Sacco, a public relations executive for InterActiveCorp, learned the misuse of it has the ability to backfire and deteriorate one’s reputation (USA Today). Factors such as

culture and stereotypes influenced the accuracy of the social media community’s perception of Sacco as well as Sacco’s perception of Africans.
Sacco was on her way to Africa before she made a tweet that would change her life forever. Her tweet read that she hoped she didn’t get AIDS while in Africa, following these words with “Just kidding. I’m white!” (USA Today). With only 170 followers, Sacco did not expect to get much buzz from her tweet. But when she landed in Africa, she found herself as the number one worldwide trending topic on Twitter. The hashtag #HasJustineLandedYet surfaced within the plethora of tweets bashing Sacco and her choice of words, as they came off as racist to the preponderance of people.
Sacco made this stereotype because of the AIDS epidemic in Africa.

Although not everybody in Africa has the disease, Sacco made this joke based on preconceived notions. Culture also played a part in influencing the widespread ridicule Sacco received. The social media culture exposed Sacco’s tweet even more than it would have been if it did not exist. With this type of culture, what someone says is able to spread across the globe in a matter of seconds to 557.4 million people (ad week). This makes it harder for people like Justine Sacco who tweet something viewed as offensive to a large group of people because of the large audience its accessible to. The new social media culture takes away from the privacy people once had because so many people are using it to not only share thoughts and experiences, but to also collect information on others and express personal opinions or notions. When Sacco decided to send that tweet out, she might as well have shouted it out to the world. All thoughts put on social media are no longer personal, but

public.
This case exemplifies how crucial what people put on social media really is.

Social media on the surface looks like a private and safe place to express our thoughts, but is actually like a crowded room with millions of people (HubPages). Sacco unfortunately learned this the hard way. And although what she said probably wasn’t the most morally-correct statement, the punishment she went through was in no way common for that type of mistake. Eventually, Sacco was able to attain a job as marketing and promotion director at a successful company, but not before being shamed for months after the infamous tweet (NY Times). If Sacco would have restrained posting that tweet and just said it out loud instead, the amount of ridicule she would have received could have been dramatically

smaller.
Although Justine Sacco just made one mistake, it ended up blowing up across the social media world, leading millions of people to perceive her as a racist. Although the tweet may have not represented her true character, her reputation was tainted because of one ignorant joke she only expected a few people to see. Sacco serves as a prime example to why it is important to monitor one’s activity online. Whatever is said on social media is open to the public and can negatively or positively affect the way people or even businesses are perceived. Social media has become a huge means of communication and can make or