Some of the readings from this module talked about anonymity. While there are both good and bad side effects of anonymity, this article focuses on the negative ones from anonymity. Social Media startups Secret and Whisper both allow people to post anonymously. Some of the posts people put out on these sites aren't good and usually involve hate or distasteful things they are to scared to say in person. These types of Social Media allow people to viciously attack each other, or display feelings they wouldn't be comfortable displaying in a face-to-face confrontation. Anonymity can be a good thing, but one people abuse it, it can be very harmful for others.
http://www.cnn.com/2014/04/02/tech/social-media/secret-apps-business-insider/
I too posted an article about whisper, but mine was more on the positive side. However, this article and your summary had great points about the dangers of this anonymity. The ability to post hateful things without any real backlash offers a great outlet for angry people to take out their feelings on people that they don't know. However, this is not an ideal situation for the people on the receiving end. Overall, I don't know that this level of anonymity contributes to the safety of social media users. In fact, I would say that it may lessen the safety of the Internet by enabling cyber bullying.
ReplyDeleteEven in sites with less anonymity (such as Facebook), where your name and info are posted, people are still much more likely to post something before they say it. This means that there is less thought to the social appropriateness of their comments or status updates. Would someone say their post aloud in a group of people? Everyone sees their post. It seems to also point to the fact that some people are longing for interaction with humans because they feel like the only way they can share those things is online.
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