When you ask any of us what we adamantly pursue in life, the ideas of happiness, love and, if we’re honest with ourselves, fame and fortune often come to mind. However, to many in the right circumstances, fame is the last thing you’d want.
In fact, anonymity has been an exceedingly common way for people to express beliefs, disagreements, insults and ideas without being associated with them by others. This reverse-fame, where someone desires to be attributed to something they create as little as possible, as opposed to as much as possible, has become progressively easier with the rise of the internet.
Now, that’s not to say anonymity isn’t valued in real life. In the classroom, for example, students are often asked to review a teacher’s performance anonymously so they are honest. As an example with Ohio University, the graffiti wall is a place where people can publicly and anonymously express political and social opinions without facing any consequences. That allows for interesting and shockingly honest public discourse and has been a source of both criticism and praise directed towards the university.
Honesty is a trait closely associated with anonymity. It allows us to express our deepest, even darkest feelings without having to take responsibility. Many of us censor ourselves in our day-to-day lives due to social norms, but anonymity erases this completely.
This can certainly be seen as dangerous. Tumblr has had a famous issue with anonymous messages. Emma Blackery explores this in a comedic sense with her video, "Reading Anonymous Tumblr Messages."
Many of the messages are insults or criticisms from which the poster does not want to be associated and own up to their talk, and many are sincere compliments from people who are simply too shy to show their identity. However, these anonymous messages can get much darker.
In fact, the problem has gotten so bad that there are multiple pages and posts referring to, specifically, the prevention of suicide encouragement on Tumblr. Would people say such horrible things if their identity was associated with it? Often not, due to both social norms and the possibility of being charged with manslaughter. However, the presence of anonymity makes this point completely moot. It doesn’t matter — no one knows who you are.
So is this who people truly are? Mindless, hateful people who desire death for others?
Of course not — although that’s certainly a much more in-depth philosophical discussion than some internet article on anonymity can go into.
Anonymous messages are also often kind, and non-anonymous messages certainly are often nice. Sure, there are terrible, dangerous people who would wish harm on others, but those people are a minority.
Does that mean anonymity is absolutely perfect in every circumstance? Probably not.
Is it a problem that should be investigated? Well, unless a direct threat to safety is posed, probably not.
Marco Omta is a sophomore studying music production. How do you feel about anonymous comments and posts? Email Marco at mo183714@ohio.edu.
