Blog post 3 Personal Identity Timothy Zielinski

The idea of people and their identity on the internet is to me very interesting. There is a lot of talk on how the internet and this age of time is drastically changing how people communicate with one another. The internet has provided a unique ability to the user that is a new idea, the ability to be anonymous. This idea of being anonymous is said by Tavani that some critics find this to be the dark side of the internet. Though this could lead to certain bad things, including cyber-bullying, like many things there is an upside. On page 335 there an example of a cyber-bullying and does show a dark side. But the idea of anonymity can be for good. For a person with a lower sense confidence it is good for. These people may not feel as comfortable to express themselves and to share information or thoughts that they have. When it comes to forum site were bunches of people with similar interest come to talk to each other with names they want to be known as I don’t see this as anywhere near a dark side of the internet. When it comes to kids especially on the internet no names should be placed. This gives a sense of privacy to the user and allows them to feel safe. When it comes down to having a site that displays personal information, this is more dangerous in my opinion. A site that is completely anonymous can dramatically lower the risk of something like cyber-bullying. This is because there is only usernames of people to harass and really they could just change this. I think forums and blogs with usernames let people feel they can say what they really feel, and allows them to feel like they cannot be harassed by people as much as on MySpace or Facebook. It also allows kids to go on forum sites and be safe from leaking their personal information which could for many reasons be a negative thing. Honestly though it is hard for people to connect this because of how much of the internet is legit. People’s information does get out there and sites like Facebook exists, but sites that do offer people to be anonymous should not be looked down on. I for one enjoyed going on forum sites for games and talked under a username that allowed me to speak my mind with no worry at all.