E-rosion of Accountability

A week ago today, I posted on the anonymity present on the Internet. At that time I was collecting my thoughts in preparation of an essay I am doing for my writing class. Process work if you will. Anyways, the essay is now completed, and I have decided to submit it here. I am removing the works cited page to help avoid any sort of plagiarism, and I think that is something I will end up doing from here out anytime I do post an official finished project, (not that anyone would be even remotely interested in using my ideas, or even be reading my Blog). Oh and dad, if you read this, what can I say other than you know its true? So without further adieu:


E-rosion of Accountability

Through the ages, humans have grown to become truly unique. We intuit our way through the unknown, and possess a knack for inventiveness that sets us apart as a species. Of all our traits, one stands out among all others and that is our ability to communicate using varying and advanced methods. In recent times, this has translated to our usage of the Internet. Whether it’s through the use of Blogs, sending e-mails, or posting on message boards, we are communicating, and while this technology may seem miraculous to some, it is important that we understand the nature of it, and the consequences that can stem from using it. The Internet offers us the choice of anonymity which allows us to say things that we normally would not say if our audience knew who we were, and yet it is this freedom from accountability that threatens to erode our common decency and respect for each other.

There are many times when we find ourselves in a rush, and we choose to communicate via sending e-mails. We tell ourselves that an e-mail will be faster, more convenient, save time, but what we don’t take into account is that maybe the message is a bit ambiguous or a tad emotional, and no matter how eloquently we attempt to articulate that message, a large portion of the feeling behind it will be lost in translation. We are not only in a hurry to convey our messages, but we are not taking the time necessary to adequately respect the recipients of those messages. As Stuart Rudner explains in his [source ommitted] editorial column not only has e-mail changed the speed of communication, it has changed the way we write (6).

I am keenly aware of this every time my father and I exchange e-mails. With the subject of these e-mails sometimes revolving around heavy subjects like religion, you would think that we would take the time to be careful in our choice of words, because we are such expansively different individuals. Yet we seem to saunter back and forth between numbly knuckling the keyboard and taking personal offense at every verb, and although we know perfectly well who we are speaking to, there seems to be an emotional anonymity in our exchange that robs us of our social dignity, and in many ways it feels as if the e-mails are a form of disrespect.

Face to face however, we seem to have no problems finding common ground where we can agree to disagree, and much of this is due to the absence of added interference from the digital divide. Despite all our differences we arrive at mutual understandings based largely on the availability of the subtleties like facial expressions, and nuances such as tone and inflection that are a part of real world human interaction and help us to realize certain responses are more benevolent than our imagination allows us to believe when just reading an emotionless text message. Linguist Peter Farb calls these cues “para language” (qtd. in Chapman 4).

If we should find e-mail lacking; there are other ways we can communicate over the Internet, one of those being message boards. Most of us are familiar with online forums and have used them at onetime or another. While these present the same type of content driven misinterpretations as e-mailing, forums add a new layer to the dilemma by allowing that often emotionally anonymous voice to hide shrouded behind an equally anonymous forum nickname. According to Gary Chapman, a writer for [source ommitted], electronic communication seems susceptible to misinterpretations and quick escalations of hostility, with a sort of “implosion” as those involved express anger (4).

Having spent the last 8 years reading and posting to various message boards relating to personal interests, I am familiar with the disconnect that takes place between my thoughts as I write them out, and their interpretation by my peers after they are posted. It occurs to me that it isn’t just my words being taken out of context but that I am doing the very same injustice to the author(s) of the post(s) preceding my own. Why do I feel compelled to prejudge a stranger based on a statement floating out there in the vastness of the cyber void? I think the answer resides in us all somewhere obscured between the need to communicate our unique voice of self expression, and the anxiety and let down that stems from that giving of self being trivialized by the ineptitude of a communication medium lacking of any semblance of intimacy. Sometimes the frustration associated with this lack of clarity in expression is so much that we lash out at one another; I know I have been guilty of this on many occasions.

Kim Komando explains in an article appearing in [source ommitted] that its like we can tell the entire world how we feel, and by creating a screen name we can do so in anonymity, and that “people seem to be a lot more forthcoming when their identity is concealed” (2). Our personal reservations tend to melt away to some degree sans the presence of accountability and we sometimes show more of our inner demons than is healthy for anyone involved. Granted, we live in a society based on the freedom of speech, and some subjects, while valid and truthful are safer said behind the guise of anonymous voices, but we need to be careful that we are not abusing this lack of accountability through selfish pursuits of one upping, and ill tendered payments to one another as reward for having said something we disagree with. There are those in society that already exercise little if any respect for their neighbors face to face, if we are not careful, we run the risk of further eroding our fragile communal bonds through Internet anonymity.

Works Cited
-removed-

-DRJ

Anonymity Anxiety

I've recently been dwelling on the anonymity that seems to be prevalent on the Internet. So much in fact that this Blog site has been, in part, born out of a desire to express my thoughts with more accountability attached to them. I am weary of the lack of interpersonal intimacy forced upon us through the allure of screen names and user accounts, hidden e-mail addresses, and blank profiles. We relish in our freedom of speech, but suffer a deeply seeded anxiety at the mere whisper that someone representing consequence or accountability might be privy.

So we create elaborate facsimiles of ourselves, avatars designed to evoke "ooohs and ahhhs." We speak the truth but we do so as ghosts, shrouded in the garb of Midnight Riders, we "run to keep on running, cause we not going to let em' catch us no" (Allman Brothers). We spend so much time protecting our identities online; that we lose sight of the essential reality of what it is we are doing, communicating. There are some who will argue that this is irrelevant, how could the person knowing who we are possibly have any bearing on whether or not our exchange is taken seriously?

Looking at this question from the metaphorical position of contemporary academia, let’s imagine that the bulk of our communication is represented as an essay. What would happen if we were to submit that same essay with no works cited, quotes with no parenthetical references, and signed it "author unknown?" You are beginning to understand the scope of this now. By our choosing to shirk accountability by hiding behind a digital mask, we are losing any real substance we might otherwise be able to provide. We are doing ourselves the ultimate disservice by not even so much as validating our own words with a linkage to experience.

While it is clear that there are many tens of thousands of people online frequenting message boards and forums, crafting Blogs, and pouring themselves into online journals and personal websites like "MySpace"... there remains a disconnect between saying what we think, and actually owning up to that same thought. In many ways, having an opinion online and laying claim to it, is like voting for that idea for the world to see. While this is a fearsome prospect isn't it our responsibility? Not only to ourselves but to everyone else we co-inhabit this rock with? Who knows, maybe it is possible to effect change, but we need to start by having the guts to raise our hands and say "Hey, look at me, I disagree!"