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| Anon Y. Mous depicted here at age **. |
Whenever I visit
YouTube, I tend to get carried away reading the comments of the videos. Despite half of them mentioning
Justin Bieber, I eventually find some really intriguing responses to the videos. Before I go any further, I would like to mention that I LOVE to comment on YouTube, especially when it involves an ongoing argument. On YouTube, I am free to use any kind of language and write exactly how I feel on each subject I encounter without fear of being punished or slandered in my personal life. While my fellow "
YouTubers" may disagree with my comment, (and they do so without restrictions as well) I am safe from any real danger or repercussions that my comments might have caused if I said conveyed them publicly. And with that safety, I can express myself as honestly as I can.
Even when I write on this blog, I understand that I will be judged by my classmates for what I say, so I better write something that will appeal to everyone, or at least most.
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| Bruce Wayne |
When internet safety is such a prominent issue in today's news and culture, the idea of having to list your name with a comment seems irrational. The whole point of having "usernames" instead of using our real names is so that our identities remain safe, just like Batman. Batman cannot defend Gotham City if every villain knew who he was during the day! How would he be able to live both roles/lives independently and safely? How can our words be truthful and meaningful if we must reveal our identities to all who read our comments? Also, what difference does it make to the world if Alfonso Goldenrod posts a comment than if Jedidiah O'Clarkson made that comment? What I am really trying to understand from this issue:
Why does my name matter?
Believe it or not people often times take advantage of being anonymous. Shocker, right? One claim against anonymous posting is that people will abuse that privilege in order to attack another person online. This bullying and teasing online is why many believe one MUST show their name with each post. Does this issue matter enough to be a reason to eliminate our ability to stay anonymous?
I am not the only one debating this issue. To find out more, check out this
link and listen to the podcast.
My additional questions to the reader:
Does this issue fall under free speech rights?
Why or why not should we have to give our real names on comments we leave on the internet?
Henry,
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your post I have an additional thought. People may think that having a name attached to a post makes a post more credible, but what if you have a common name? If your name is the most common in the world, in theory isn't it the same as posting anonymously? Personally, I don't think a name needs to be used for a post to be important or noteworthy but I think people like to have someone or something to connect the post with. But can you really connect someone to a post, who is one of 1000 or 10000 with the same name?
Henry- this is a very interesting post. I, too, enjoy looking at YouTube comments though I myself am not a commenter. I think that right now the Internet is kind of the "last frontier" in terms of free speech. I think it's important that people do have the right to have their identities hidden, because like you said, a person can be 100% honest about their opinions. There have been times when I'm in a class when I want to say something, but I censor it because I don't want what I'm saying to necessarily be connected with me. I think that being able to have a discussion without identities is an excellent form of discovering what a person truly believes. I find that the only time I am close to being completely honest is with my family and best friends. I think that a name doesn't really matter unless it gives some back up. For example if Barack Obama were to comment on a public blog about health care, people might read into his comment more seriously if he gave his identity. I think that if an anonymous comment is truly hurtful or a threat to someone else then it is a free speech violation, but otherwise having a hidden identity can be a great thing.
ReplyDeleteHenry -- I was wondering where you were going with this, but it ties nicely into Doc OC's mention of free speech on the internet and the idea of associating identities with utterances.
ReplyDeleteIt would be great if you could link to an article about this topic or even provide us with more specific examples.