What does it mean to be a private individual in public? Are we all just characters waiting to go viral?

These questions have resurfaced following the instantly infamous Jumbotron incident that occurred during a Coldplay concert last week. Astronomer CEO Andy Byron, who’s married, and the company’s head of human resources, Kristin Cabot, were caught cuddling before trying (and failing) to evade the camera. Chris Martin quipped, apparently accurately, that they acted like they were having an affair.

The public is mostly having fun with the scandal, reenacting the incident on social media, The Late Show With Stephen Colbert, and at multiple sporting events; it’s been used in a relatively lighthearted way for film promotion and as a gag at other concerts.

Phillies debut the “Coldplay Kiss Cam”.

Wait for it… pic.twitter.com/nOxfszINRE

Some, though, have taken a more hands-on approach to the drama. Once the concert footage went viral, users flooded the comments of Byron and Cabot’s LinkedIn pages before they were taken down. Another Coldplay concertgoer sent TMZ additional footage of the couple canoodling. Users identified Byron’s wife, flooding her social media, as well as a third Astronomer executive, who was spotted on the Jumbotron laughing at the ordeal.

Understandably, a married CEO getting caught and subsequently resigning for having inappropriate relations with a subordinate hasn’t warranted much sympathy. The ordeal is amusing to the extent that the players are largely unrelatable and seemingly thoughtless. Still, the fallout has been disconcerting to some. While the couple was exposed in a seemingly organic and accidental way, the speed at which the story........

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