Bullying is an epidemic that can cause serious problems. It is often seen between adolescents and teenagers and may not be considered very serious most of the time. However, the effects of bullying can be detrimental to a growing child who may not have self-confidence or the simple ability to ignore harsh and cruel comments and gestures. Whether the adolescent is bullied to their face or on the Internet, they are very susceptible to judgment. There have been multiple instances in the news in which adolescents have committed suicide due to a bully. This past fall, five homosexual adolescents committed suicide within three weeks of each other due to bullying that became too much for them to handle.
Among these five was an eighteen-year-old freshman at Rutgers University named Tyler Clementi. Tyler’s roommate videotaped Tyler having sexual relations with another male student and posted it on the Internet. Upon hearing of this invasion of privacy, Tyler jumped off the George Washington Bridge and ended his life. His only goodbye was a Facebook status that Tyler posted, “Jumping off the gw bridge sorry.” (Friedman, 2010). This is not the way that anyone should leave the world. However, Tyler Clementi is one of many homosexual, adolescent victims who do not see any other solution to his problems. This tragedy has become a reality to parents, siblings, friends and countless others of too many adolescents.
In Massachusetts, eleven-year-old, Carl Joseph Walker-Hoover hanged himself by an electrical cord, due to the bullying he faced at the charter school he attended. “According to his mom, the kids picked on him for everything from the way he dressed to how he talked. Carl's classmates often taunted him and called him "gay"” (Dorning, 2009). This cruelty and harsh treatment towards peers is developing at an early stage, and it is an issue that needs to be addressed immediately. Carl’s mother advocates anti-bullying laws because she does not want other parents to suffer the loss of a child the way that she did. Carl’s mother, along with many others advocating these laws, are helping solve the problem of bullying. They recognize that peer victimization can lead to extreme isolation that has the power to deteriorate a child’s mental and physical health to the point where suicide seems like it is the only way to escape.
If these occurrences are happening due to bullying in person, it is impossible to imagine how much damage can be done if the victim does not know the person bullying them. Due to the popularity of the Internet, people of all ages have experienced a new form of bullying, commonly known as cyber bullying. “In the information age, playground poundings have moved to online chat rooms and instant messages. Nearly half of all teenagers report they have been the victim of cyber attacks” (Parents). I think that the reason cyber bullying causes such a threat is because of the possibility of anonymity. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, anonymous means “nameless, having no name; of unknown name” (OED). When a child is bullied to their face they know the person, and the child has a better chance of stopping the bully by avoiding them, talking to them, or seeking adult assistance. However, on the Internet, people can hide behind false identities that give them anonymity.
Although anonymity can be positive, there is also a negative side. On the one hand, when we have an embarrassing question we can ask it anonymously on websites, this is helpful because people can get answers without being judged by peers. On the other hand, there are sites such as www.FormSpring.me, on which anyone can anonymously ask questions to a specific account holder, which can create damage to an adolescent’s confidence. I first saw this site when I was a Peer Leader for 7th grade girls last year. My girls showed me funny things that they were asked, but I was shocked to see one post that was not a question, but a statement that still upsets me. It read, “You are such a b*tch. I don’t think it occurs to you how many people hate you!”. These young girls were being verbally abused on this website by people who knew that they could never say such harsh words to someone else’s face. They hid behind cyber anonymity in order to bully and torment others. Adolescents have yet to fully mature, meaning that they are very susceptible to judgment, especially when it is possibly coming from a peer. It is also posted to the Internet which has a permanent and strong presence. Things that are written on the Internet are written in ink that can never be erased and the information is easily shared for all people to see.
When anonymity is factored into cyber bullying, the victim has no way of knowing who is harassing them. In October 2006, thirteen-year-old Megan Meier was being cyber bullied by an anonymous profile. The person started out as a male friend with whom Megan began to form a close friendship. However, eventually the person began insulting Megan and nasty things were being posted on the Internet about her. When her parents found out they tried to solve the problem, but it was too late. Megan had been victimized and the damage was irreversible. Megan hanged herself because of this instance of cyber bullying. The shocking part about this unfortunate story was that the Myspace profile that had harassed Megan was created and used by the mother of one of Megan’s peers. Anonymity permitted this adult woman to be vicious to an innocent teenager to the point where Megan committed suicide (Parents).
Anonymity and cyber bullying is a serious issue that needs to be put to an end. Adolescents have not fully developed and are susceptible to judgments and awful comments made by their peers. They are vulnerable and an anonymous cyber bully can seriously damage their self-esteem. As nice as it is to ask anonymous questions that might be embarrassing or might cause the person asking to be judged, anonymity can be easily abused. It also provides people with the ability to say things that would not be acceptable to say out loud because it is too harsh or too cruel. It is also an issue that can affect adults. Things such as trolling on a blog are ways that adults attack others anonymously for fun or to gain a specific reaction for their own amusement. People also hide behind anonymity on Second Life games and are able to express prejudices against others in the game.
In Second Life games, people have the ability to create an avatar. They can choose its race, gender, and other features. People have the opportunity to become something they are not on the Internet through their avatar. In the real world there are stereotypes and prejudices; these same issues are present in Second Life games as well. For example, “Brazilians are often assumed to be prone to content theft…Still, because of the stereotype, there are honest Brazilian content creators in Second Life who now disguise their national origin, for fear of being accused of content theft” (Au). Having prejudices and biases like this are frowned upon today because we are a nation that is supposed to accept everyone and respect one another as equals. However, when anonymity is factored in people with prejudices and biases are free to express themselves as aggressively as they want. This creates conflict on the Internet because these stereotypes and other issues are much less likely to be present in the real world. People have a higher tendency to be harsh when they are not recognized for their words and actions and they are protected by anonymity.
Another way that people hide behind anonymity is on blogs. People who comment with strong words or are putting down another blog, more commonly known as trolling, probably would not make the same comments if their real identity was exposed. People have the liberty to be obnoxious and rude on the Internet because they are hidden by a fake identity. Trolls are often looking to start commotion or extract a specific reaction from other people on the Internet. In an article in the New York Times Magazine, a former troll explained that, “Lulz is watching someone lose their mind at their computer 2,000 miles away while you chat with friends and laugh,” said one ex-troll who, like many people I contacted, refused to disclose his legal identity” (Schwartz). The idea that manipulating anonymity to extract emotions is, unfortunately, popular. Trolls roam the Internet in search of victims that they can easily abuse for fun. Trolls are an example of anonymous cyber bullies; they get pleasure from watching an innocent person suffer. Anonymity gives people the power to do things that they know are wrong; they can get away with things that are even illegal.
One example of this was proven through the Robin Sage Experiment. The experiment, performed by Thomas Ryan, started with fake profiles on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn under the alias Robin Sage. Thomas Ryan, “sent requests and established social network connections with more than 300 professionals in the National Security Agency, DoD, and global 500 corporations” (Ohab). Ryan was able to access security questions to email accounts and bank accounts of people that befriended the fictitious Robin Sage. Even though a user has a profile picture and friends on a social networking site, it does not mean that they are a real person. “Having a friend you don’t know means virtually anyone could be monitoring your activities and the information in your posts. If you post as much as some of my friends that means they’d know almost everything about your schedule right down to that “epic cheeseburger” you ate” (Ohab). Anonymity is easily abused and someone can obtain private information if people are not wise about privacy settings on such sites.
Another way that people can easily fake their identity through abusing anonymity is seen through 90-Day Jane. 90-Day Jane was a blogger who blogged that she was going to blog for the next ninety days and then commit suicide. She wrote, “What else should I say? ...This blog is not a cry for help or even to get attention. It's simply a public record of my last 90 days in existence" (Hinckley). Her blog grabbed the attention of many people on the Internet. Psychologists who handle suicide patients expressed deep concern, as well as average every day people who feared for 90-Day Jane. She went as far as to post videos asking for advice on what outfit to wear when she committed suicide. Needless to say numerous people were disturbed, but the site, “attracted 157,530 hits before it was taken down” (Hinckley). As it turned out 90-Day Jane was an experiment preformed by a blogger who, “made the site as an art project, figuring only some friends would see it because people usually aren't drawn to dramatic stories on the Internet” (Douglas). She was protected by her ability to be anonymous on the
Internet and was able to create a great deal of commotion online without even trying.
Anonymity has been abused on the Internet in many forms. Cyber bullies, people on social networking sites, trolls and other bloggers have the power to manipulate other Internet users for their own entertainment. If this abuse continues there could be more issues caused simply because people are looking for a way to stay entertained, despite the fact that they may damage another person. Adolescents are most vulnerable to these methods of bullying; however, adults can be affected as well. Adults can also be the ones causing the problems on sites as well as Second Life games by using the power of anonymity in unjust ways. Although anonymity can be a positive thing in certain situations, people have been able to use it in negative ways and cause problems as severe as suicide. It may be impossible to end abuse of anonymity but there are ways that people can be smarter about it. Parents can protect their children by monitoring their use of the Internet. Adults and teenagers can be careful what they post on social networking sites such as Facebook, Myspace and LinkedIn. Everyone should think twice about how they act on the Internet because it is written in permanent ink that can be shared with everyone. If you would not say it to someone’s face, you should not say it online. These are only a few examples of the ways in which people can be safer on the Internet and less susceptible to abuse through anonymity, cyber bullies, trolls and other cruelties and biases on the Internet.
Works Cited
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