wilebill
03-21-2007, 09:32 PM
Story. (http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0320cruel-anonymous20-ON.html)
When a California woman recently gave birth to a healthy baby just two days after learning she was pregnant, the sudden change to her life was challenging enough. What April Branum definitely didn't need was a deluge of nasty Internet comments.
Postings on message boards made cracks about Branum's weight (about 400 pounds - one reason she says didn't realize sooner she was pregnant). They also analyzed her housekeeping ability, based on a photo of her home. And they called her names. "A pig is a pig," one person wrote. Another suggested that she "go on the show The Biggest Loser.' "
"The thing that bothered me most was, people assumed because I am overweight, I'm going to be a bad mom," Branum says. "And that is not one little bit true."
It was yet another example of how the Internet - and the anonymity it affords - has given a public stage to people's basest thoughts, ones that in earlier eras likely never would have traveled past the watercooler, the kitchen table or the next barstool.
Such incidents - and there are countless across cyberspace - also raise the question: Is there anything to be done about it? Or is a decline in civil discourse simply the price that we pay for the advance of technology?
Should everyone own up to everything they say on the internet, which in more liklihood would mean less meanness? Or can anonymity be a good thing? How much good "secret" info has been passed on here by people who otherwise wouldn't have said anything if they had to attach their real name to it?
I know that different people here wish to remain anonymous for different reasons - to protect their jobs or their relationships with other people, just to name a couple. I don't think that being anonymous is inherently bad, but that some people will use that anonymity to say hurtful things.
I don't see this changing on internet forums, and I actually think that for the most part those here on MH are not as mean as other people I've seen on other sites, including the HA site.
When a California woman recently gave birth to a healthy baby just two days after learning she was pregnant, the sudden change to her life was challenging enough. What April Branum definitely didn't need was a deluge of nasty Internet comments.
Postings on message boards made cracks about Branum's weight (about 400 pounds - one reason she says didn't realize sooner she was pregnant). They also analyzed her housekeeping ability, based on a photo of her home. And they called her names. "A pig is a pig," one person wrote. Another suggested that she "go on the show The Biggest Loser.' "
"The thing that bothered me most was, people assumed because I am overweight, I'm going to be a bad mom," Branum says. "And that is not one little bit true."
It was yet another example of how the Internet - and the anonymity it affords - has given a public stage to people's basest thoughts, ones that in earlier eras likely never would have traveled past the watercooler, the kitchen table or the next barstool.
Such incidents - and there are countless across cyberspace - also raise the question: Is there anything to be done about it? Or is a decline in civil discourse simply the price that we pay for the advance of technology?
Should everyone own up to everything they say on the internet, which in more liklihood would mean less meanness? Or can anonymity be a good thing? How much good "secret" info has been passed on here by people who otherwise wouldn't have said anything if they had to attach their real name to it?
I know that different people here wish to remain anonymous for different reasons - to protect their jobs or their relationships with other people, just to name a couple. I don't think that being anonymous is inherently bad, but that some people will use that anonymity to say hurtful things.
I don't see this changing on internet forums, and I actually think that for the most part those here on MH are not as mean as other people I've seen on other sites, including the HA site.