Negative Effects Of Anonymity On Social Media

Whenever a historian in the future enlists the most impactful phenomena of the 21st century, social media will be right up there. As of now, there are approximately four billion users of the internet.

That is approximately half of the world’s population! But that is not at all the most amazing figure about the prowess of the internet.

Here is what is bound to shock you: if we take the mean of the time spent of all the people who use social media, we will come up with an answer of more than two.

That is half of our life considering eight hours are reserved for sleep, eight hours for work, one hour for work, and one hour for work.

If you are wondering how so many were impacted by social media so fast, the answer is the ease of access to the internet due to the growth of services like Xfinity internet. In fact, there are seven thousand service providers in the United States of America!

When we are in an era that is basically dominated by social media, discussions at dinner tables and picnics are bound to happen on the phenomenon.

On one hand, people hold discourses on whether social media negatively or positively impacts us, others think about the effect social media is having on the human race.

There is yet another section of people that engages in discussions on whether it is a good idea to allow anonymous posting on social media. If you are one of the people belonging to that sector of the population, you can get delighted as we will be discussing this very topic in this article.

Anyone Can Lie

There is already a lot of untrue information going around social media these days. After all, there must be something from where the term fake news has originated from!

Basically, anonymity will lead to a lack of accountability. Consider how right now, when posting is not anonymous, people often double-check before posting something as they fear being judged if the information turns out to be false.

Now imagine if people like Mark Zuckerberg and other well-known social media authorities met and decided that from now on they would allow people to be anonymous on social media. People will start to share any piece of content that supports their viewpoint even if they are not sure whether the information provided is correct or not!

Hate Speech

This point is related to our previous point. When people feel comfortable sharing information that is false, haters will get the opportunity to spread hateful information against minorities.

This will have a drastic effect on pluralism all over the world but more in countries where the lesser represented communities are already under the gun. Take the Islamic Republic of Pakistan for example.

Recently, as many as sixty people of a minority community died due to a bomb attack on a place of worship of the minority community.

Thank the stars, these kinds of events do not happen in the United States of America. But if we allow anonymity on social media, the likelihood of these events taking place will definitely increase.

Cyberbullying

Many from all parts of the world have significant chunks of their life ruined because of cyberbullying. In fact, a few even choose to end their lives because of it! To make matters worse, these people are often kids that have their entire futures ahead of them!

A question that may be posed right now is how cyberbullying is related to anonymity on social platforms. Well, many organizations including schools, offices, and recreational clubs have strict regulations against bullying. Because of these regulations, many do not want their name to be attached to cyberbullying.

When we make posting anonymous, bullies would prey on people as they know they will not be able to get caught for it! This will have disastrous effects on children going to school and adults being marginalized in offices. 

Devil’s Advocate

To play devil’s advocate, anonymity can help people in oppressive regimes to organizeing on social media for their independence. Alongside, it can also help whistleblowers leak out any malpractices happening in their organizations. Anonymity will also encourage the growth of ideas as people will be able to suggest something new without the fear of being judged.

Conclusion

Although it is up to you to decide whether anonymity should be allowed on social media, according to us, the cons outweigh the pros. Best of luck with making this decision yourself!