Responding to Michael Schwartz

I completely and 100% agree with your post.  I felt like you did a great job opening up and introducing your ideas with that first statement and then the following questions, and continued by transitioning into what you would be talking about. As far as the actual meat of the paper, I like how you broke it up into the positives and negatives, and actually your negatives were very similar to mine.  With the positives, you did a good job going through each of the social network and other technological advances that are commonly used in today’s world and explaining their significance. What I agreed with most came in your paragraph about the negatives. I noted it in my post too, and that is how it’s a shame that  we have all this technology that can be and for the most part is used in beneficial ways, but there are still people out there who decide to use it to release their anger and immaturity out on others simply because they can. Anonymity can be a helpful trait or a harmful one, and lately we’ve seen in the news how harmful it really can be. Overall I feel you did a great job with this post. 

The Mob

When you bring the possibility of anonymity together with our modern connectedness, it is almost inevitable that there will be misbehavior and cruelty. However, the blame for that is not to be on our connectivity, but rather on each user’s personal choices. The fact that you can post almost anything online completely anonymous can be pretty dangerous, but beneficial at the same time. However, this question is not solely based on anonymity.

            The first asks about unintended effects that are the result of our connectedness, and I feel like a novel can be written on this topic. Just recently, the Rutgers situation shows a perfect example of this. A student posted a video of his male roommate having sex with another male on the web, and as a result, his roommate committed suicide. Clearly, the student did not intend for this to be the result of his prank. While it was extremely cruel and heartless, I’m sure that was the last thing he expected to happen, and as a result, is facing criminal charges. Another example our connectivity causing negative results happened in a local high school near my hometown. A friend of mine posted a picture on Facebook of a girl getting beer poured into her mouth and down her shirt by two guys, and when the school saw it, they expelled her.

            Facebook has become a dangerous site nowadays. Colleges now are looking at students’ profiles and even rejecting students if they see material they don’t approve of. The same goes for many jobs hiring young adults. At home, I see kids who are applying to colleges having to change their Facebook display names so colleges won’t find them. I’m sure to adults who never grew up with Facebook or any of the other social networking sites that it would seem a little absurd, but it actually is necessary to do, as sad as that seems.

                        Now, to get back to anonymity, I don’t think it’s possible to put a label on whether it is beneficial or harmful. It has it’s pros and cons, but I feel the cons greatly outweigh anything that can be positive about it. Anonymity can be useful online when it comes to posting in blogs or threads about various topics and giving your opinions. On anything from sports to politics, you can join a chat and give your completely anonymous feelings toward the subject. However, that is overshadowed by the negativity that has been spread through anonymous posts on the internet. On such website as formspring.com and even the honesty box application on Facebook, people can go on a certain users site and bash them without there being any chance of being caught. So although our modern technology allows us to do this, it is each users own, personal and immature choice to use anonymity in a negative light.

            I feel that all of this is both the result and cause of societal discourse, if that makes sense. For instance, someone having a bad day or something could use the internet to take out their stress on someone else to feel empowered. However, this could easily cause a chain effect.  Let’s step away from anonymity for a second though. Just the simple fact of always being connected can be seen as the cause for such discourse, as demonstrated in the documentary. For all of us, it is safe to say it would be nearly impossible to live if our technology away. I myself ,for instance, feel like I’m lost when I don’t have my cell phone. Whenever I break it or lose it, I am forced to go a day or two without it. In this short period of time I  feel like I am in a different world, completely separated from the one I am used to. Now, I am not one of those people who multitask and are texting on their blackberry, on facebook, and checking email all at the same time, so I could never imagine what it would be like for them to lose their connectedness. The fact that there are hundreds of thousands of people who are like that in the world can be seen as a main cause of social discourse, for without their technology, they would be lost.