Welcome To The Online Anonymous Zone
Submitted by Dr. Gwenn Is In
There’s a debate in the health blogging world about whether doctors should use their real names, as I do, and many others, or blog anonymously. The Health Care Blogger Code of Ethics provides a nice sample of current trends. While the tides do seem to be moving in the direction of named blogs, many bloggers do prefer to stay under the radar.
All health care bloggers should uphold the same ethical standards about HIPPA privacy rules and medical ethics regardless of what name path they choose. Most physician bloggers I’ve talked with feel strongly that doctors who blog should use their own names because we are held to a certain standard of accountability and professionalism. At the same time, many of the best blogs on the blogspere are currently anonymous and those bloggers have done so because of feared reprocussions in their communities, practicies and hospitals. Those, too, are real issues.
Readers, too, face similar issues for anonymity on their profiles. What I find is the comments from readers who use their names tend to be a bit more respectful than the comments from anonymous readers. If you read enough blogs, that patterns plays out over and over again. Anonymous comments all too often have a “shoot from the hip” quality that can be inflammatory and insulting. Many worry that bloggers who blog anonymously run this risk as well.
Perhaps you’ve noticed in your own online and communication experiece the same phenomenon? Often the element of anonymity removes the cork from many people’s otherwise good judement and social skills. MSNBC yesterday posted a piece that echos these concerns. The subtitle is “faceless communication online or over the phone often turns nice people nasty”. Here are my favorite lines from the article:
- “Between out-of-control customers, vituperative online posters and road-raging drivers, it’s hard to find an individual who hasn’t succumbed to the siren song of faceless, consequence-free communication. Online boards are clogged with insults hurled by readers hiding behind deceptively mild screen names….”
- “‘Anonymity can draw out some very troubling behavior.’”.
- “…media sites from Sacramento to Soho are stepping up their moderation of anonymous comments in an attempt to keep the incivility down to a low roar.”
The article is worth the read. It gives great examples of inappropriate behavior and how many online groups are dealing with it. The article also points out that there really is no such thing as truly anonymous bloggers or commenters. The blogging platforms have ways to track down where those posts and comments originated from if they need to. That offers all of us the ultimate layer of protection from people who begin to cross the line a bit too much.
The take home message is simple: if you are going to blog or comment anonymously, do so wisely and with your eyes wide open, because all eyes really are on you these days.
Dr. Gwenn Is In is for child health and parenting ideas and to pass on information that is passed to me by community groups and groups like the American Academy of Pediatrics. If you have ideas to share, please share them. If you disagree with me and want to offer a difference of opinion, please do so. I’ll always approve comments that add to a productive conversation, even if you don’t agree with my position. However, comments that contain SPAM, harrassing or hateful language, or are gratuitous attacks on me for because you don’t like my opinion, will never get through. Those type of comments never add productively to any conversation in any setting.
I’m just not into the blogging road-rage thing. So if you are, you’ll have to find another blog to bother.
Visit 1800blogger to see all of our industry leading blogs.
Leave a Reply
