I do not have a strong online presence. My blog for this class is the most that I have ever posted online. I do not necessarily want to create an online footprint of every opinion that I have ever had because I know that they will change and develop as I continue to grow and learn. In fact, I do not even agree with every opinion that I have posted on this blog after we had in depth discussions during class. I think its entertaining to read silly arguments that are brought on by the most harmless of internet “trolls.” But I do not advocate for anyone trying to hurt someone else on the internet because it really can have a terrible effect. There are several examples of people committing suicide because they were extensively bullied online, including the young girl discussed in class. Some of these cases include bullies who knew the victims, but other cases also include anonymous bullying. It is not something to be taken lightly. I agree with Google+’s choice to remove real names because I think that anonymity can create powerful movements that are positive. It is not always a negative. I did not necessarily think of that argument until reading the article. I tended to believe that anonymity is also sometimes a positive way to promote discussion. But, the option to provide real protection is also extremely important. As mentioned in the article, many people need anonymity for protection from their governments or even just protection from groups of people who have differing ideas.
I do think that it is interesting that negative comments on the internet do not necessarily disappear when real identities are used. Many people are perfectly comfortable to continue to be much more aggressive on online forums than they would in real life just because they have the separation of a computer screen in front of them. Facebook is a strong example of this. I have seen plenty of posts on the internet with content from Facebook where one of many individuals are saying terrible things to each other.
I appreciate that Facebook has attempted to create a solution to the “real name” issue by allowing individuals who needed to use a fake name for protection to report this issue. However, they clearly do not completely address the issue because the policy still does not allow these people to use a pseudonym for their own safety. I think it is important that there is a way to protect yourself against the internet trolls. Most social media does allow you to block individual users, but I believe this is an important feature in any social media. I think that internet trolling is an interesting issue because it is so difficult to regulate. There is a very difficult decision to be made between allowing users who want to be hateful to do so and also allowing people who need to be protected to use anonymity for their own safety or to do good in the community.
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