"We are creating for ourselves a frightening world where the best way to survive is to be bland,” says journalist and documentary maker Jon Ronson, of the culture that is developing as a result of people routinely taking to social media to shame strangers, in many cases for nothing more than a bad joke.

Jon is used to delving into the shadows with his work and telling stories from the margins of society, and while the internet is in full view, he explores a darker side with his latest book, So You've Been Publicly Shamed.

Jon, who divides his time between London and New York, will be speaking about the book and answering questions at the Ropetackle Arts Centre, in Shoreham on March 9.

Online shaming is a relatively new phenomenon, explains Jon who, during his research for the book, spoke to people whose lives had been dramatically altered, and reputations destroyed as a result.

For those unfamiliar with the workings of social media, it may seem a strange concept, but in this very public arena, the power of the people is real.

He describes a “renaissance of public shaming”, comparable to the public punishments that were phased out in this country in the 18th century.

In the book Jon focuses on the experiences of several people who have borne the brunt of such shamings.

These include Justine Sacco, who made a joke on Twitter about AIDS before boarding a flight to South Africa, and by the time she landed had already been fired from her job amid a Twitter storm; Jonah Lehrer, who fabricated several Bob Dylan quotes in his book on creativity, and Lindsay Stone, who was photographed making a disrespectful gesture in front of a soldier’s grave, as part of an in-joke she shared with a friend.

In all of these cases the response was arguably disproportionate to the transgression. In all three cases the shamees received torrents of abuse online (including threats of violence and rape in the case of the women), lost their jobs and their reputations.

Jon’s aim is not to make people terrified of using social media, rather to alert people to the fact that their actions can have an impact on the lives of real people.

“It’s really hard to talk about this book in a way that will please everybody. I don’t want to make this a book about ‘be bland, be safe, be banal’; this is a book I’m hoping will speak to the shamers rather than the shamed.

“I’m not advocating for a bland world, but at the same time, I don’t want people to be offensive.

“When racism and sexism happens, it’s challenged, and I’m very glad that’s happening, but at the same time what’s happening is really brutal shaming campaigns against people who really don’t deserve it.

“We have to think about how merciless we want to be.”

Jon uses the term “we” as he himself is a keen Twitter user, and admits in the book that he has in the past taken satisfaction in Twitter shamings.

The seed of the idea for the book was sown when Jon had his online identity stolen by a group of academics who set up a fake Jon Ronson Twitter account.

When they refused to remove it, Jon publicly confronted them online, and they were shamed into retreat.

Working on the book was a completely immersive experience, says Jon, whose previous books include best-sellers The Psychopath Test and The Men Who Stare At Goats, which was made into a film starring George Clooney and Ewan McGregor. He also co-wrote the screenplay for the 2014 film Frank, starring Michael Fassbender, inspired by the story of Frank Sidebottom and his band, in which Jon played keyboard for a time.

“I found it stressful, and had sleepless nights. It was frightening for lots of reasons; as I said in the book, it’s my worst nightmare, and being with these people who had been crushed and the fact it was my world meting out these punishments.”

It was around 2012 that Twitter changed from a benign entity, says Jon, following a number of social justice campaigns that were very effective, and shifted the balance of power.

“I think people got carried away.”

“We had done good, and we wanted to do more good. Some of the things that we won and continue to win, were and are great.”

The danger is that people are becoming defined by their mistakes, which can continue to haunt them years down the line.

Jon discovered that a new line of business – reputation management – had emerged in response to the impact of an online shaming, these companies work with clients to change their online presence, and manipulate the internet search results.

He got in touch with one such company which agreed to take on the case of Lindsay Stone, who lived in fear of her new employer typing her name into Google.

In the book Jon describes what the company offers as “shame eradication”, flooding the internet with new information in the form of photographs, blogs, and accounts – safe and uncontroversial – in order to manipulate the search results.

“There’s a sadness that they have to reduce [Lindsay] to banalities, and it’s our fault,” says Jon.

Getting victims of online shaming to agree to be interviewed on record proved one of the biggest challenges.

“I told them I didn’t want to shame them, I wanted to humanise them.

“I think it was much easier to get them to agree when I could truthfully say this was the reason.”

Jon says he has a couple of film possibilities in the pipeline for his next projects.

“I’m thinking about doing that for a while.

“There’s a little bit less stress in fiction, because you are not worrying about everyone’s feelings.

“I live by the Hudson River, and I go for long walks where I listen to podcasts,” Jon says when I ask what he does to combat the stress.

“I would love to write a book that’s not so obsessive to write.”

Meet the Author: Jon Ronson is at the Ropetackle Arts Centre, Shoreham-By-Sea, on March 9, 8pm. Tickets are £8, visit ropetacklecentre.co.uk or call 01273 46444 So You’ve Been Publicly Shamed (Picador) by Jon Ronson is out now.