Anonymity Online

With todays technology anonymity is a bigger part of our lives than ever before. But the anonymity has brought up the question should people remain anonymous no matter what? As long as they are not doing anything illegal, people should always remain anonymous.

The Internet has brought about a level of connectedness that has never existed on this planet before. People are able to connect with each other across the world in an instant. But with this increased communication ability we have become farther apart than ever before. A level of Anonymity never before seen has gone hand in hand with the new ability to connect. Anonymity has been a blessing and a curse. It has been used to do good and to do bad. There are some people that say that those who say offensive things should be exposed to the public, but they should not.

In today’s society we are brought up to be “proper” which I do not necessarily think is a bad thing, but it has been taken to the extreme. Kids today are coddled and protected more than ever before. They are told to not say anything that will offend someone else. I feel that a result of this is why people are so vulgar and inappropriate online. The Internet is the only place where they feel safe to post how they really feel, or the place that they can get it all out of their system before going off, back into the real world.

Yes racism still exists in the world today, but it is nowhere near as bad as it once was. As Jeff Winger from the show Community says, “I think not being racist is the new racism.” Nobody in the world can claim that they have not disliked at least one person in their lifetime, however feeling bad about not getting along with that person because they are a different nationality is wrong. This is the reason that many people over compensate so much online with racist remarks. A very small percentage of people who make racist remarks online are actually part of organizations such as the KKK. They are just over compensating for having to keep all of their thoughts all bottled up.

I have gone to school with people like this. In real life they are some of the nicest people, but playing online games with them over Xbox live, they turn into some of the rudest people out there, using racist terms and verbally attacking people. But the next day at school they were back to normal, back to the quiet kids that they had always been.

The Internet can be a place of release, a place where you can be whoever you want, an escape from reality. This is why people’s identity should not be exposed for rude and offensive behavior. It is better for people to release their stress online, to be jerks, than to have them blow up in real life and potentially injure themselves or others.

The Internet is a place without boundaries. You must be responsible for yourself and use your common sense. Although it is almost impossible to avoid offensive material all together on the Internet you can do many things to limit the amount that you are exposed to. You must also recognize the audience of that community. The majority of offensive remarks made are by younger kids that try to fit in or get noticed for the comments that they make. And what better way to get noticed than to say something that you are not supposed to.

The website Fat Ugly or Slutty demonstrates sexist remarks made to female members of online gaming communities. It is obvious reading these messages that most of them come from young kids who are saying them because they have heard them as being very offensive to women and cannot think of anything else to say. But as being a member of Xbox live and getting many angry messages myself, I can honestly say that they are being treated the same as everyone else. I have received and seen messages that are much worse than those. With such a high population of male players in these communities, the female members are sometimes treated like the male members, in which for most cases nothing is too rude or unacceptable to say.

There has to be a line for Anonymity. As in real life, there has to be things that are not acceptable. If, and only if, these lines are crossed, a persons right to anonymity online should be lost. An example of crossing this line would be breaking a law. In these cases it is safer for everyone if these people do not remain anonymous.

Anonymity also protects people on the Internet, people who are willing to speak out against injustice in government and society. People can speak out against things like oppressive regimes and violence without the fear of having the people who are committing these injustices.

The Internet is the last outlet for people to truly express themselves. The key component to this is the aspect of being able to express yourself without the fear of being ostracized for what it is they have to say. Taking away anonymity from the Internet would change what the Internet is. It would just turn into a everyone being fake and not able to truly express themselves.

If we were to start exposing people’s identities for submitting offensive material, things like racist remarks, where we would stop? Anything put on the Internet can be considered offensive to one group of people or another. How could we make everyone happy? Which values would be deemed acceptable, be put above another? Even if we could come up with a set of guidelines that we deem fit, how would we justify the consequences of releasing these identities? Would one offensive remark validate harm coming to that person? This is why anonymity must be sustained in the Internet, because once we remove it for some people, it will never stop.

So it comes to an end

Hello fellow classmates! The year is coming to an end, and with it so does my blog. Finishing up my second year of University leaves me thinking back on my experiences and looking forward to the future.

I didn't believe people when they would say that time goes by at an amazing speed after high school, but they weren't lying. This semester was the fastest one yet; in this short time my life has changed in ways that I never would have guessed. Here are a few of the highlights.

Football: I have mentioned before that I play football for the Calgary Colts football team. Football has been a constant and extremely important part of my life for the past seven years of my life. It has changed who I am. It has made me into the man that I am today and has been the thing that I have always been able to lean on. At the beginning of last season I started to feel like I was coming into my own as a player, but I was knocked back by an injury. I had surgery on my shoulder in February and recently found out that I may require surgery on my left shoulder as well. I was very hopeful in making a big push to play a larger part on the team this year, but because of my injury I will miss almost all of the off season training and may miss the season completely if I require surgery on the other shoulder.
My injury has taken away a large part of my life in the form of physical activity. Football at this level is a year round commitment. I have learned to enjoy the off season training, not only for the physical benefits but for the mental ones as well. I have had to learn to cope with not having this in my life for an extended period of time. A positive that I have taken from the situation is that I have come to realize that even if it were not for football, I would still want to be physically active in my life and plan to be long after football.

Work: I have worked at Safeway since I Was in high school. I started at the lowest position that they had in the company. Over the past year I have made many advancements within the company and have secured myself as an important player within the store. I have become proud of the fact that I can do almost every job in the store and that no matter who you are, whether you be a twenty year veteran, your first day on the job, or a customer, you can come to me to help solve your problem.
This semester I was approached by another company at school. The company, Scholars Edge Painting, offered me the chance to run my own company for the summer. The opportunity intrigued me and I knew that I could not pass it up. The job so far has taught me about myself and pushed me to my limits. However it has also taught me about things that I now know I would never do. I have come to realize that I could never do a job in marketing (as I have had to go door to door advertising for my business) and I have learned that even though I can do it, I would not pursue a job in sales; I don't hate it, but I definitely do not love it either. Sometimes learning what you don't like is just as important as discovering what you do.

School: I have changed my plans as to what my end goal is with school countless times over the years. This year, and especially this past semester, have helped me narrow down the choices tremendously. I have been exposed to new thoughts and ideas (including this class), and have found a topic in which I actually really enjoy. Although many people despise organic chemistry I have grown to love it. So much so that I have decided to pursue it further and possibly pursue a career in it.

Women: Although this is a topic that I usually do not discuss with people other than my close friends the year would not be complete without some mention of the topic. This semester a lot of major things in my life changed in the span of about a month. My surgery brought about a lot of changes in my life, not only did I have to adapt to life with only one arm, but I went from being busy pretty much everyday of the week, with a day off maybe once a month, to almost nothing. Without having football five days a week, work four days a week (and no school for the week afterwards), I started to go a little crazy before I adapted to having all the free time. Shortly after that my girlfriend of ten months and I broke up. Without having any of my usual vices to fall back on made this a very hard time for me. But time heals all wounds and some good came out of all this. A girl that I have had a crush on for the past two years started to talk to me, and with fingers crossed I move forward, to what is hopefully a new chapter in my life.

I do not know what my future holds for me. There will be ups and there will be downs, but I look forward to every second of it. Thank you all for a great semester and good luck in your own endeavours.

Jared Salekin