When researching online, we can pretty much get away with saying anything that we want, and remaining anonymous. There is a website that I am sure most of you have been on, Mlive.com. Mlive has a forum for particular sports, and in high school I followed the HS softball forum. On this forum, people make up screen names, and can remain completely anonymous the entire time. They can say whatever they want about any team, or player, and nobody would have a clue who they are. This was very frustrating to my father who was one of the coaches of my team, because sometimes the comments were pretty nasty and directed at the young players who were just playing the game for fun. This was the time when I realized that being anonymous online could cause big problems for people.
On Youtube, people post videos of themselves doing some of the craziest things. Sometimes it makes them famous, like Keenan Cahill, the boy who lips sings songs by popular artists. Some of this vidoes ended up making this young man famous!
It also can humiliate us if we thought something was funny, so we posted it, and then we received many hurtful comments. There was a particular video that I watched was of a guy dancing in just his underwear to certain songs.
Follow this link for the video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hJJffRFpi9c&feature=mfu_in_order&list=UL&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D3wpTClg2DxY&has_verified=1
The people who watched this video comments varied from thinking it was funny or disgusting, to one person reporting it that it may be inappropriate for children under the age of 18.
"The forward march of social networking can be seen on sites for other services and organizations. It inspires things as trivial as visitor pictures and profiles, or as complex as mechanisms for encouraging visitors to sign up more recruits, mark other members if the site as friends, form affinity groups, post content, and compete for points that harbor some promise of future value." - Andy Oram
I think that what we post on our social networking sites, can be crucial for others finding out information about us. We all need to watch what we post, because you never know who has access, and how much information someone can find out about you.
There are advantages of remaining anonymous online because you can state your true opinion without anyone finding out. Many people will say things online that they wouldn't say in person to someone. Being able to remain anonymous online allows peoples true thoughts to come out. It is so easy to fool others through the Internet, we as Internet users have to try to be smarter than them! I don't really know how to combat these negatives affects, just try to be smarter than the other person. Think things through before jumping to conclusions, and look at all the possible options. Some people just have nothing better to do, and they sit on the Internet and post a bunch of BS to get a rise out of people. Don't let them win and get to you!
I totally agree with you when you talk about the advantages of remaining anonymous online. I posted the same ideas in my blog post about remaining anonymous. Most people post anonymous when they post a controversial post towards a certain topic. A lot of these posts I see on newspaper websites such as the Detroit Free Press. However, I feel that if you want to post something controversial, man up to your post and state your name. This can also result in more people agreeing with you and its possible for a policy to change in your favor because of your idea. I feel like you can bring up a controversial topic if you handle it in the right way. I believe if you have a strong argument and its very organized, then there is a good chance that your opinion will be heard!
ReplyDeleteGreat post!