What a game taught me about anonymity.

Something that occurred to me as I was writing my previous post was that I very rarely feel anonymous in an online environment.  In most cases, I am using my real name (e.g., Facebook, email) or a screen name that can be easily linked back to me (e.g., forums, Twitter).  It can feel constricting, needing to be careful about what  I share and say, and how I share and say it.

The last time I truly felt anonymous was when playing a game called Velvet Sundown.  Velvet Sundown is a multiplayer game in which each player takes the role of a character with a predefined backstory and items. The goal of the game changes based on the scenario, from solving a murder to simply more open scenarios where you set you own goals.  What made the game so interesting to me is that you are hiding behind a character, and no one knows who you really are (though it will be revealed at the end of the game).  This allowed me to roleplay as an Irish bartender trying to get everyone drunk or as a reporter trying to write a story about a new designer drug without fear of what others would think.  This was both because of the context and because of the anonymity.  It was liberating to be free from having to carefully check everything that I would say, as I do on Facebook and in emails.

But my experiences with Velvet Sundown bring up an important question for me: Is being anonymous useful in typical cases?  It's a lot of fun to be anonymous in game like this, but I can't imagine a scenario where anonymity can actually be beneficial, aside from a few edge cases (e.g., WikiLeaks).  In fact, we have seen time and time again the negative effects of anonymity online.  People feel liberated and do things that are inappropriate.  For instance, Twitter has struggled to deal with anonymous users harassing and threatening other members (http://www.theverge.com/2015/2/4/7982099/twitter-ceo-sent-memo-taking-personal-responsibility-for-the).  I think that privacy is a good thing that we need to protect, but that anonymity is something that needs to go away in most cases.  The online world isn't all fun and games.

What do you think?  I'll be diving into this issue a bit more with my next blog post, when I discuss the Networked Information chapter from Networked. If possible, I would like to integrate others' viewpoints into my post.