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Anonymous Comment Meme
Jan. 23rd, 2007 12:01 pmThere's a meme floating around that goes something like this:
I find this pretty interesting from a sociological perspective. I can understand the use of the "suggestion box" for a business, especially because an employee probably doesn't feel free to criticize a "higher up" for fear of retribution.
I also understand those sites where people confess things anonymously (google "anonymous confession" to see several such sites). These people are trying to find a way to speak some secret without feeling like they have actually broken a trust, or maybe they're trying to find a way to brag without getting caught (hard to tell with some of the confessions!). I'm not sure that typing a confession to a computer is any safer than speaking the secret into a hole in the ground (see the story of Midas' barber).
What I don't understand is somehow mixing the two. Sure, respondents to this meme could post arbitrary things, but it seems that most are responding with a comment (either positive or negative) directly to the LJ user. I wonder how many of the respondents would be upset if the LJ user somehow finds a way to link the comment to the respondent? How would what they write differ if they thought that the comment could be traced? (And why does anyone think that stuff on a computer can be anonymous?)
I guess I see it as a lack of integrity -- being willing to say something, but unwilling to admit that you said it. After all, in the LJ world, what is the danger of retribution? You probably won't lose your job over it. You may lose a friend, but if your friendship can't handle honest communication, then is it really a good friendship?
I realize, however, that this may be yet another way in which I'm different from the world. I wonder if being an introvert affects my thinking of this? I suspect that I don't feel as much "pain" over losing an acquaintance that an extrovert might.
Feel free to comment on this, "anonymously" or not. I'll claim not to log IP addresses, but you really don't know what LJ is doing under the covers.
Comment anonymously to this post saying anything you want... a secret, a joy, something you hate, something you like, something you hate about me, something you like about me, something you've always wanted to tell me, but haven't, a recipe...
make it anything... but make sure that it is ANONYMOUS ... nothing is screened, IP's aren't logged
I find this pretty interesting from a sociological perspective. I can understand the use of the "suggestion box" for a business, especially because an employee probably doesn't feel free to criticize a "higher up" for fear of retribution.
I also understand those sites where people confess things anonymously (google "anonymous confession" to see several such sites). These people are trying to find a way to speak some secret without feeling like they have actually broken a trust, or maybe they're trying to find a way to brag without getting caught (hard to tell with some of the confessions!). I'm not sure that typing a confession to a computer is any safer than speaking the secret into a hole in the ground (see the story of Midas' barber).
What I don't understand is somehow mixing the two. Sure, respondents to this meme could post arbitrary things, but it seems that most are responding with a comment (either positive or negative) directly to the LJ user. I wonder how many of the respondents would be upset if the LJ user somehow finds a way to link the comment to the respondent? How would what they write differ if they thought that the comment could be traced? (And why does anyone think that stuff on a computer can be anonymous?)
I guess I see it as a lack of integrity -- being willing to say something, but unwilling to admit that you said it. After all, in the LJ world, what is the danger of retribution? You probably won't lose your job over it. You may lose a friend, but if your friendship can't handle honest communication, then is it really a good friendship?
I realize, however, that this may be yet another way in which I'm different from the world. I wonder if being an introvert affects my thinking of this? I suspect that I don't feel as much "pain" over losing an acquaintance that an extrovert might.
Feel free to comment on this, "anonymously" or not. I'll claim not to log IP addresses, but you really don't know what LJ is doing under the covers.