Anonymity Sparking Awareness

For my essay, I’m still not completely confident in my argument. I could give reasons as to why I think anonymity is harmful as well as why I think it’s beneficial. While skimming the articles, online and in the packet,  the annotations, the Room for Debate charts, and reading the hyperlinks, I came across the Room For Debate article, “Dialogue is Important, Even When it’s Impolite” by Ryan M. Milner. That article made me realize how important anonymity is online when dealing with social issues. Milner proved his point that silencing the bad online will also silence the good. Silencing the people who impolitely express their opinions will also silence the good people who are rightfully able to express their opinion. Milner used an example having to do with a hashtag that expresses the animosity that women have to deal with and its correlation with gender inequality. Some people came about the hashtag in cruel ways, completely mocking it and degrading it as well as degrading women in what they were saying.  Over social issues such as this one, most people, especially women, won’t allow themselves to feel belittled so they use their voice to fight for what’s theirs and educate those who are ignorant and those who feel superior over social media sites. They feel the need to raise their voice and spread more awareness for the greater good. Now that was just one example based on that hashtag. Yes, there were trolls saying stupid things just to spark up some heat with feminists, but that also results in those feminists, whether they be men or women, to speak up. If anonymity was not an option, would social issues spark awareness as much as it does today? Ryan M. Milner stated, “When antagonistic speech facilitates voice, satire or play, it may have civic value. Vibrant voice is essential online. Platform moderators, diverse individuals working to curate a culture of civility, can powerfully shape the online conversation.” Honestly, even while making this blog post, I had a different reason behind why anonymity is beneficial, but it ended up stirring in this direction. I don’t know if this will be an argument used in my essay, but it’s a thought.