Anonymity: Masking the True Potential of the Internet
Anonymity is without a doubt one of the most important areas of discussion regarding the Internet. As Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook advocate for the establishment of a more transparent Internet, the question looms: is anonymity online good or bad?
Let’s go back to YouTube, which is quickly becoming a staple of my blog posts. The quality of YouTube comments can largely be considered a byproduct of anonymity (or pseudonymity, to be more precise). Since users do not have to reveal their real names in order to comment on the site, they are far less likely to have their comments traced back to their real-life identities. As a result, their inhibitions are brought closer to zero, and the particularly nasty or crude members show little restraint in posting a variety of hateful, offensive, and just plain stupid comments. For a better example, take a look at 4chan, which operates under complete anonymity for its members. Actually, on second thought, stay away from 4chan. Far, far away.
Now look at Facebook. Facebook, as I’m sure most of us know, is not a gold standard for civility or even coherence as far as posts go. However, when compared to anonymous sites, there is certainly a difference in the majority of the posts of the site’s users. When people are aware that their actual identity is going to be tied to what they post, they are more likely to think twice about what they’re posting and less likely to be offensive and hurtful just because they can.
What does this say about anonymity? Anonymity allows people to be less than human; to be cruel, shocking, and hateful, oftentimes to an extent far beyond what they would be capable of in person. Unfortunately, this suggests that anonymity is harmful to the sanctity of the Internet as a place for social networking and expression of thoughts and ideas.
An “unveiled Internet” offers accountability on the part of its users, and while this will cause many people to think twice about using the Internet, that is precisely the point: people will think twice about spewing hateful speech or being excessively belligerent for the sake of inciting an online riot of words. Eliminating anonymity would also severely pare back the reach of Internet trolls, who would be far more concerned with what they say if their real identities are in plain sight.
Facebook has taken tremendous strides towards conditioning us all to embrace the idea of this accountable Internet future, and for the most part, we have been fairly accepting of these actions. With the immense amount of Facebook integration across the Internet, the idea of being ourselves online is no longer a strange one. It is one that we have proven willing to adopt, and once we go all the way with it, I suspect that most of us will have no trouble adjusting.
In theory, anonymity should be a helpful resource for Internet users, but in practice, it has made the Internet a more aggressive and less friendly place to interact. To eliminate anonymity is to calm the Internet; rather than being a distorted, insane version of our everyday lives, it will become a natural extension of them, and that is what will truly be beneficial.