As technology has developed more and more over the years we have seen many great things come about such as smart phones, portable laptops, along with many other things. But these advancements in technology have not always brought on good things. Many websites that are available for public use on the world wide web have been home to many bullying incidents, and have become more and more common over the years. The ability for the so called ‘trolls’ to hide behind a computer knowing that their identity is hidden due to anonymity has allowed for them to make even more attacks very easily. In a lot cases those who are being cyber bullied have went to drastic measures to end those attacks by committing suicide, this has become such a problem that even our current President Barack Obama has addressed the issue (2010). This paper will take a look at the problems that many people believe anonymity enabled websites and cyber bullying can bring on to people who are common users of the Internet and their websites. I will be taking a look at three texts one of them being “How the Internet created an age of rage” an article posted on The Guardian by Tim Adams who is a staff writer for the Observer. In Adam’s text he shows what is pushes the anonymous commenters to do what they are doing and why it can be beneficial for there to be anonymity or not beneficial. Another text I will be looking at is “Where Anonymity Breeds Contempt” by Julie Zhuo who is a product design manager at Facebook. Zhuo’s text takes a whole look at both sides of the argument to see what can be done about anonymity. The last text I will look at is an excerpt from Smarter Thank You Think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds or the Better a book written by Clive Thompson who is a Canadian freelance journalist, blogger and science and technology writer. In Thompson’s text he gives examples of situations where anonymity is allowed but there is nothing put positive comments and feedback. By analyzing these three texts I will look at what many writers believe is causing online bullying and what can be done to change it to see if their solutions to these problems seem effective.
Many of the attacks that happen on the Internet are done by those who use websites that allow anonymity or those who use pseudonyms. A lot of people believe that if websites did not allow for users of their websites to chose to be anonymous or have the ability to go under a different name that they would not say the mean things that they do. It is obvious that no one is safe from these types of attacks from the common person to entertainers and especially politicians. Psychologist came up with the terms deindividuation which happens when “social norms are withdrawn because identities are concealed” (Adams). In other words that means that people are more prone to do or say bad things when they know no one else will now who said or did such things. An experiment was done with trick-or-treaters who were invited into a house to take sweets and right next to it there was also a large sum of money “When children arrived singly, and not wearing masks, only 8% of them stole any of the money. When they were in larger groups, with their identities concealed by fancy dress, that number rose to 80%” (Adams). This experiment shows the same thing that happens in a online social media situation because people know that their identities are concealed and they are in large groups they encourage one another attack people. On the other hand a man by the name of Jeffrey Wells, who Adams introduces in his text, is the author of author of Hollywood Elsewhere, a former columnist on the LA Times, and a blogger believes that “anonymity makes for livelier writing” (Adams). Wells has had many encounters with a man who uses the name LexG, a man who constantly comments on Wells’ work, Wells believes that LexG is a great writer and does not agree with others to enforce a “real name” policy. Adams writes, “He [Wells] has resisted insisting that people write under their own name because that would kill the comments instantly”. Overall in Adams text he shows why anonymity can be a bad thing but also uses Wells as an example on why anonymity should be allowed because it promotes people to comment freely on things whether it be positive or negative feedback.
Trolling has become easier due to the Internet but it has roots that go all the way back to the fourth century B.C. when Plato was alive (Zhuo). In a parable written by Plato he touched upon the subject of anonymity and morality. He talks about a ring called the ring of Gyges this ring when gave its owner the ability to become invisible and Plato noticed that even most honorable man would become a thief because they knew they would not be caught (Zhuo). This same concept applies to those who use the Internet Zhuo calls is the “online disinhibition effect” which basically means that when a person is online they tend to act our more frequently than they would in a face-to-face situation. Zhuo writes, “Many victims are turning to legislation. All 50 states now have stalking, bullying or harassment laws that explicitly include electronic forms of communication…Last month,…,Carla Franklin, persuaded a judge to force YouTube to reveal the identity of a troll who made a disparaging comment about her on the video-sharing site”. The law itself cannot protect these people all on their own Zhuo believes that the websites and content providers should help out the law by discouraging or disallowing anonymity on their websites. Although many people might argue that anonymity cannot be completely eradicated because people will always find a way to get around the rules, making it harder for them to do so is a start. Many websites are already beginning to take action in learning how to make their comments a well regulated place for people to exchange ideas and opinions such as Gizmodo. In Gizmodo the commenters have to go through sort of an audition to see that they are posting quality comments and once they are trusted then they can post freely. As a whole Zhou believes that the content providers should stop allowing anonymity and train their users to report trolls and that the websites should moderate their comments sections.
The types of threats that arise can range from just a plain disagreement statement to rape threats, when the person being attacked is a woman. According to Thompson, “…abuse isn’t evenly distributed. It’s much less often directed at men, particularly white men like me. In contrast, many women I know—probably most—find that being public online inevitably attracts a wave of comments”. When women along with minorities or any subordinated group have opinions on topics which are controversial, politics, or even something intellectual they are most likely to be attacked online. Although many people blame the Internet for creating these types of prejudices they did not, they only created a new stage for them according to Thompson. A good example on how the Internet can once again become a good place where people can receive and give positive or constructive feedback is that of Ta-Nahesi Coates. He is a “…senior editor at The Atlantic Monthly, a magazine of politics and culture…” (Thompson 78). Coates was a blogger himself before moving it over to the Atlantic and noticed large amounts of terrible comments left on the pages of his favorite political bloggers. He noticed that when a lot of people would post negative things that they would “…poison the atmosphere, chasing off productive posters” (Thompson 78). So Coates decided that his blog would be different, that those who had an opinions that were written in an intelligent manner and not meant to hurt anyone would actually be allowed to stay. According to Thompson, “The instant he [Coates] saw something abusive, he’d delete it, banning repeating offenders… he went out of his way to encourage the smart folks, responding to them personally and publicly, so they’d be encouraged to stay and talk” (78). What Coates did was a very smart thing because it forced out those “trolls” and welcomed the intellectuals. Many social media websites should look at what Coates did and learn to moderate their sites comment section so that it will not be such a cesspool.
As a whole these three authors made great claims on the subject of anonymity. All three of them acknowledged it as something that can have negative effects when directed towards others. Adam’s text gave and example on how anonymity pushes large groups of people to attack others but he also wrote about a man (Wells) who sees anonymity as a good thing. Zhuo’s text showed us how far back the negative effects of anonymity come from and what can be done to fix all of the problems that come out of it. Thompson’s text talks about the people who tend to be attacked the most by anonymous posters and showed a great example on how one man was able to moderate his website to be a place full of positivity while still allowing people to be anonymous. I think that these text’s were all very strong because they all gave a sufficient amount of examples to support their claims and the fully explained their position. After reading all of them I think that I was most persuaded by Thompson’s text because I believe that they only way for these problems to be avoided is if websites or content providers themselves do a good job at eliminating the trolls and allowing for those who post quality feedback to stay.
Works Cited
Adams, Tim. "How the Internet Created an Age of Rage." The Guardian. The Guardian, 23 July 2011. Web. 6 Apr. 2015. <http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/jul/24/internet-anonymity-trolling-tim-adams>.
Thompson, Clive. Smarter than You Think: How Technology Is Changing Our Minds for the Better. N.p.: Penguin, 2013. 77-81. Print.
Zhuo, Julie. "Where Anonymity Breeds Contempt." The New York Times. The New York Times, 29 Nov. 2010. Web. 12 Apr. 2015. <http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/30/opinion/30zhuo.html>.
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