The Growing Cowardince of Anotimy

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Glennis Garcia Mukherjee English 1113 09/19/2012 Anonymous Cowards: A Summary The Growing Cowardice of Online Anonymity by Richard Bernstein is an essay that describes how Internet users nowadays prefer to be anonymous while been on the net. It shows the negative sides of allowing people to be anonymous online, usually posting inappropriate content on sites. Anonymity has grown from being used mainly for newspapers to now it being misused by individuals with no shame of writing what there sometimes hard opinions that sometimes affect other individuals. As the Internet use has grown, so has the anonymity many people find it alright to hide behind an anonymous post afraid many don’t think the way they do. Others hide themselves because they are posting negative and improper things about a subject or about someone in particular. Like Bernstein states “In one feature, to take one modest example, the site asked for replies to the question: Who are the sluttiest girls at Cornell? As of this week, there were forty-seven postings in response, several of which gave names, apparently real ones (Bernstein 349-350). Shows how many reputations and lives can be ruin by one anonymous person that doesn’t consider the damage done, therefor becoming a coward hiding behind anonymity. The majority of users post nasty comments but are cowards when it comes to post them with their name on the post. Bernstein tells “It’s the anonymity that Amazon grants to its reader-reviewers that I object to, on the grounds that anybody who wants to say something nasty about somebody else’s work ought to have a little bit of bravery needed to say it under his or her name (Bernstein 350). For one to hide behind an anonymous post is an act of cowardice why not express ourselves the way we feel without having to be cowards and not letting others know our thoughts or ruining lives without

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