I'm going to run a scenario by you.
Let's talk about a guy called Moe. He's a bit of an off-beat guy, but nice enough. Not always the most self-aware, kinda naive, but a good guy. One day, Moe's out shopping, and he sees an unusual top hat. Bright purple, with gold stars around it. Something Abe Lincoln would have worn if he was a wizard.
Nevertheless, this hat speaks to Moe (not literally, it didn't have a mouth). It's yelling at him from the shelf "Wear me! Out in public!". And he listens - he bought the hat, wore it back home, and felt good about it. On his way home, he checked out his reflection in the passing shop windows, and he liked what he saw. "Looks good" he said to himself.
For the next few weeks, Moe wore the fuck out of that hat. Fucking loved it. Paired it with every outfit he wore outside, and sometimes inside as well. He was well chuffed with it, this hat. Sure, it got some glances and stares from people outside, and maybe even a chuckle from the folks behind the counter in the newsagents. But that was okay - Moe was fully aware it was an odd hat. As naive and non-self-aware as he was, he knew it was a strange hat. Sometimes someone would ask him why he was wearing it, and his answer was the same each time:
"I just like it!"
All sounds good so far, doesn't it? A guy doing what he wants, completely harmless, a bit of light ribbing or attention here and there, but nothing serious. Moe loves his purple top hat (with yellow stars - don't forget).
Moe gets a message on his TikTok account from a stranger:
"Fuck you and your cringey fucking hat. Kill yourself."
The hell? That's a bit rude. And anyway, who is this guy messaging him? And how does he know about the hat? Moe went on TikTok and, after a while of searching, found a video. A video of him. A video of him, secretly taken from across the road when he was nipping into a shop the other day. A video of him, with fifty-thousand views. A video of him, with fifty-thousand of people laughing at him.
"Fuck me," he thought. "Fifty-thousand people laughing at me." And they were. They were laughing, they were commenting, they were saying things like "what a loser", or "does he think that looks good?", or "does his handler know he's escaped". One person was shilling dick pills, but that was probably not related. Comment after comment, cringe, cringe, cringe. An endless stream of mockery, from thousands of people, all directed at him and his hat.
Thing is, Moe knew the hat was a bit weird. He knew he'd get looks out there, a bit of chuckling. But this - fifty-thousand people gawping at a video some creep took of him - well that's just a bit beyond the pale. We all know there's no expectation of privacy nowadays, what with everyone having a camera on them at all times, along with the ability to broadcast videos to the whole world within a couple of minutes, but still - it's a creep move to do, to take that video. Is this what people do nowadays? And all the commenters! Not necessarily different from what the people around him might think, but the scale is just so different.
"I've not even done anything wrong" thought Moe. And he was right. But knowing that fact is little comfort when your harmless eccentricities are being mocked by thousands, and even getting some flippant and rude comments directly in your inbox. It's like being bullied at school - you can protest your innocence, try to argue back, but the bullies are still going to rip the piss out of you.
So, Moe did the only thing he could think of, the only thing that could protect him in the future. He chucked his beloved hat in the bin. And from that moment onwards, he was careful not to stand out too much any more.
I just made all of that up. Complete fabrication. It'd be shite if that did happen, though, wouldn't it?