Anonymity on the internet was initially, I feel, one of it's biggest draws. In fact, I'd go so far to say it still is - look at MMORPGs like World of Warcraft or mainstream games like Halo. Players can be whomever they'd like to be - not who their forced to be everyday. They're anonymous for the most part and no one that they interact with has to know who they actually are. I'm not Ryan the Production Supervisor with a messy desk - I'm Valdahar the elven ranger and I just shot at you, awesomely I might add, with a bow.
Of course this dramatically lowers self censorship. Visit any blog with a popular comments section or play a game of Halo 3 online and you'll learn new and exciting ways to insult your friends and enemies. I personally can attribute my learning of 3 new racial slurs to Halo 3 online play (which the ESRB very cautiously point out,"Online Interactions Not Rated...")
Exciting.
The problem is that we aren't anonymous anymore when it comes to the internet. Social Networking sites (which we, of course, need to choose to participate in) such as MySpace and Facebook give you a voice. A very strong and very public voice.
Visit my Facebook page - or my, more frighteningly, some of my friends' Facebook pages and you'll find all sorts of information about me. You'll find out I'm newly engaged. You'll find out I work for AboutFace. You'll see embarassing photos of me. You'll see photos of my kissing my aforementioned fiance. You'll see my recent status update that, "I'm a pathetic pirate clowny clown" (It's a long story).
That's the point of Facebook. People see things. People can and will find out things about you. On Facebook I am a node of constantly updated information for almost anyone to see.
I am far from anonymous. Which brings me, long windedly, to this bigoted idiot:
Longhorn's expulsion shows need for caution on Facebook | Sports | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle.
or the same story but with some strong language:
The Rundown
Yup. It's amazing. If you write stupid stuff on your more or less publicly available social networking page people will read it (which incidently is why Social Networking rocks as a component of advertising campaigns) and think you are stupid or, if you're lucky, funny. If you write racist things on your more or less publicly available social networking page you will probably lose your job (unless you work for racists) and become the laughing stock of probably at least half of the internet....maybe more.
Of course this dramatically lowers self censorship. Visit any blog with a popular comments section or play a game of Halo 3 online and you'll learn new and exciting ways to insult your friends and enemies. I personally can attribute my learning of 3 new racial slurs to Halo 3 online play (which the ESRB very cautiously point out,"Online Interactions Not Rated...")
Exciting.
The problem is that we aren't anonymous anymore when it comes to the internet. Social Networking sites (which we, of course, need to choose to participate in) such as MySpace and Facebook give you a voice. A very strong and very public voice.
Visit my Facebook page - or my, more frighteningly, some of my friends' Facebook pages and you'll find all sorts of information about me. You'll find out I'm newly engaged. You'll find out I work for AboutFace. You'll see embarassing photos of me. You'll see photos of my kissing my aforementioned fiance. You'll see my recent status update that, "I'm a pathetic pirate clowny clown" (It's a long story).
That's the point of Facebook. People see things. People can and will find out things about you. On Facebook I am a node of constantly updated information for almost anyone to see.
I am far from anonymous. Which brings me, long windedly, to this bigoted idiot:
Longhorn's expulsion shows need for caution on Facebook | Sports | Chron.com - Houston Chronicle.
or the same story but with some strong language:
The Rundown
Yup. It's amazing. If you write stupid stuff on your more or less publicly available social networking page people will read it (which incidently is why Social Networking rocks as a component of advertising campaigns) and think you are stupid or, if you're lucky, funny. If you write racist things on your more or less publicly available social networking page you will probably lose your job (unless you work for racists) and become the laughing stock of probably at least half of the internet....maybe more.
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