stranger danger no more (on the web)

I type this fairly certain that you (the reader) have signed into a google account in order to access this blog site, and therefore know that I am preaching to the choir. That said, my request is reducing the number of anonymous human interactions we have online.

My concern with the subject began in high school, when anonymous Twitter accounts were opened, obviously inspired by the cultural phenomenon, Gossip Girl. Certain students were being torn down in an incredibly public forum, but didn't know who or what they were up against, and often salacious rumors were being spread.

Since high school we've learned a lot about the internet, and trends are moving away from anonymous forums. However, sites like Reddit still exist. I pointed out differences about anonymous vs. profile-based forums the same week we all debated about a dress, but my first post touched on the things we trust on the internet. Pathos definitely comes with a comment that can be linked back to a real person.

In the renaissance we have an excellent model of effective discourse in the republic of letters. Scholars were not necessarily friends "irl" but would write to one another in hopes to advance the discourse in their fields. Letters were also often sent to criticize, but the human element was never removed from interactions.

The metaphor I have chosen to center my presentation around however came when we studied industrialization. War is on the opposite trajectory, and has become increasingly removed and destructive. As we continue to develop the internet as the wonderful tool it is, we should actively debate the way we program its usage. Legislation is unable to keep up with technology as it advances, leaving responsibility with innovators as the model currently exists.


UPDATE:

Of all the presentations, the two main things I learned were that I needed to better organize my presentation, and needed to more effectively tie emotions of the class to my topic. While the visual organization helped me think in a new way, it also meant new styles of organization and in the future I should review my argument and make sure it flows better. Emotionally, my own brother was horribly bullied on an anonymous site, and pulling in that experience may have been more powerful. I also needed to take myself much less seriously in order to engage the audience, I let my nerves affect my presentation.

Kirsten posed some really excellent questions in her comment that I would like to answer:

What are some ways that you think we can teach the younger generations to be genuine online? 
Honestly, I think the younger generations are kind of programmed to be authentic online. I think they accept their online profiles as extensions of who they are, the larger problem is removing anonymous forums where they are able to mask their ideas.

Do you think being "yourself" online could be dangerous? How do you feel we can best be true to ourselves online but also maintain our personal security?
Like anything, there are dangers involved with personal information, but having a better idea of what security is actually like on the web will shape what is and isn't considered "safe." As we understand limitations of those who would steal information and as web security measures advance people will feel more comfortable with selective personal information available.

 And how can we learn to trust others, or rather how do we discern between those who are also being honest and those who are lying?
I don't see this problem as too different from discerning honesty in real life. As mentioned previously, education will be a large part of identifying "scams" or situations where we shouldn't trust others, but the more personality people show in their profiles and the more often you see their interactions with others online, the more sure you can be about the person they are presenting. As we tie public sites to other sites and can see consistency in profiles across platforms it will be easier to tell whether you can trust someone or not.