Chapter: Online Anonymity

Quote:

Before turning to a discussion of the concept of anonymity itself, it is worth noting that recent concerns about anonymity may be an expression of a widespread feature of contemporary social organization and of the extent to which technological features of that organization affect with whom we interact, how we interact with one another, and how we think of ourselves as related, socially and ethically, to others. Anonymity may be deliberately sought or something that occurs spontaneously from the sheer complexity of modern life. The idea of a kind of naturally occurring, “spontaneous anonymity” is embodied in characterizations of someone as a member of an anonymous mass or in expressions such as “the logic of anonymity in modern life.” There are two ideas at work here.

What I expect to learn:

To be aware of online anonymity

Review:                    

Being anonymous online is definitely possible because you don’t really know who the person chatting with you across the borders of the pacific just with a click of a button. Being online affects how we see other people and how we interact with them in this technological era where people from china can talk with people from Poland without having to pay tons of money for a single hello. Like I said in my previous reviews, I find the Web very helpful with our generation because it allows us to be connected to anyone without boundaries – unless that person doesn’t have a connection in their place. Just look at me, right now I am at the hospital waiting for my CVC result and that doesn’t seem to stop me from connecting online to finish my book reviews right. Also, I can be anonymous in the Web. For example, I can simply change a little preference in my yahoo messenger for me to activate the chat room feature and change my nickname to something like “bored_keyboard” or “sissy_daisy” and no one will even know it is me because one, people in that chat room are from all over the world meaning someone from New Zealand can read my messages even without knowing that it is me, that my real identity is not my nick name in yahoo messenger.

What I learned:

·         ANONYMITY AS A FEATURE OF COMPLEX SOCIAL STRUCTURES

·         The concept of anonymity

·         ANONYMITY AND ETHICAL ISSUES IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY

·         Data Mining, Tracking, and User’s Presumption of Anonymity

·         Anonymity and Attribution Bias

·         Anonymity and Expression of Self

·         Globalization of Online Activity

·         Anonymity and Identity Theft

·         PURPOSES AND ETHICS OF ANONYMITY

Integrative Questions:            

1.    What is anonymity?

2.    What is anonymity as a feature of complex social structures?

3.    Define data mining.

4.    Define Tracking.

5.    Explain globalization of online activity.