I keep hearing about the terrible drought that southern California is currently suffering through. Have these people never been to Las Vegas?

Either way, considering that the drought is very real, the response to it has been weak, and no one wants to see Mad Max become a reality, people have started using apps for something called Water Shaming.

Using apps like VizSAFE (iOS and Android) which is described on their webpage as “Crowdsourc[ed] Community Safety and Awareness” and H20 Tracker (iOS and Android) that lets users learn about conservation and report wasters to their local government, people have now started ‘shaming’ those that are considered to be wasting water. Pictures are taken of the offenders and then sent out to other users of the app. Twitter has also gone crazy with the *heavy sigh* hashtag #DroughtShaming.

You. Stop that or be posted to social media.

I am virulently against any shaming on social media, there’s no place for it and no reason for it. We’ve all seen the terrible stories about the way innocent and undeserving people are shamed on social media for who they are. Sometimes this shaming leads to the ultimate tragic result.

Having said that, I feel I can get behind DroughtShaming. The drought is a serious problem, all it takes is one look at Lake Mead and the Boat Docks it supports (and that was from 2008!). These people, unlike those who were targeted in my previous example, have a choice in what they are doing, and they shouldn’t be doing it. In fact, since this practice, drought shaming, started getting public attention, water use in southern California dropped a small bit. Even though officials seem to be against it, I guess in this exceptionally narrow example, it’s had a positive effect.