15 Minutes of Shame

This doc had a lot of potential and had engaging subjects who were interviewed. But the overwhelming focus on "experts" - some of whom were nothing more than far-left grievance studies academics - really undermined what is an important discussion. The doc really loses its focus (cancel culture) towards the end and devolves into SJW pandering. Too bad. This could've been great.

Although made with good intentions, the documentary can't seem to find out what it wants to be. There are individual sections, addressing different aspects of online shaming, but all scattered and thus, it makes one see all of it through one eyeglass. It definitely could have been better.

I was looking forward to watching this. But as another reviewer said, it started out great then became uninteresting halfway in. I am not a republican, I'm definitely more liberal than anything. However, I too am tired of everything in the media having a far left view. This documentary wasn't any different. The experts were all so similar it became monotonous. I enjoy hearing different opinions, but unfortunately, no one is allowed to disagree anymore. No one is allowed to grow and learn from their mistakes, or even make mistakes in the first place. Once someone makes a remark that isn't liberal, they are unjustly punished by strangers and sometimes public figures on the internet. I was hoping we would hear more from the people who were unfairly cancelled and less repetitive points of view from the experts. I felt sympathy for the people who actually went through mass shaming online, and would have preferred to hear from more of them. There's plenty of them out there, our online society has become deplorable. Everyone is so angry and defensive, I wish they had tapped more into that aspect of it. There were some informative moments, but the rest was too dull to save it. This topic needs more than an hour and a half, it should have been a doc-series with more experts who have different thoughts and more interesting research and facts on the topic. They missed a great opportunity with this one.

I stayed away from this film, thinking (wrongly) that its focus would be on its producer.

Not so. The film attempts to encompass all of the issues that impact the use and misuse of online media, and how lives are affected by online behavior. My sense is that it would have been a better product had each facet of the online world been presented separately, in a series, with a wrap up at the end.

Nonetheless, this was very well done and I will take away the names of resources featured.

Notwithstanding that this documentary was in many respects a pleasant surprise, the none-too-subtle imagery attempting to link undesirable groups to a former president detracted from the film's overall theme.

It started out strong with examples of internet shaming that are both recognizable and more nuanced than Twitter outrage allows us to explore. Remember the guy who bought all the hand sanitizer in early 2020? There are even some cultural psychologists who weigh in on human tendencies and behaviors and offered insightful commentary.

Then, they brought in the gender studies experts. It all went downhill from there when they started explaining how women who get internet-shamed are victims of the patriarchy. Roxanne Gay weighed in to tell us it's not "cancel culture," but is actually "consequence culture." Unless, of course you're a woman of color, then it's just racism.

It's really too bad that it took the turn it did because it had such great potential to be objective and reflective.