Anonymity: The Syndrome of Communicating More Only to Communicate Less

Recently, I had a great conversation with good friend David Honigsberg as we sat in a Starbucks in Toronto, chugging back some coffee and watching the world go by. Most people walked with iPhones or similar devices glued to their hands; talking, texting or simply holding their precious cargo like it meant the world to them. They’d be checking emails, updating their Facebook page, talking with a friend, and surfing a favorite site.

I know…I used to do the same thing. Until I gave

mine away.

After a whole suite of people had passed—virtually everyone clutching their link to the world—David

and I turned to each other in synchronicity. I thought he was going to remark on humanity’s co-dependency with technology or our obsession with connecting, even if only superficially, with the world. But he opened a topic that had nothing to do with it; or did it?

He brought up the topic of anonymity. He’d recently written to the National Post, a paper he esteems and highly respects, about their apparent promotion of anonymous letters to the editor in the online version of the newspaper vs. the print version, which requires a name and corresponding contact information. Here’s his letter:

This brings up an interesting point about where we—and our news media—are headed. With virtually all communications going digital, individual and online (from books to news to movies), it is interesting to note how differently we treat the online, more easily accessed, cousins to the print versions.

Let me give you an example: I published my first ebook with Liquid Silver in 2005 (when ebooks

David Honigsberg

weren’t that popular yet; the iPhone hadn’t made its debut and the ebook industry was in a chaotic mess re formats and devices). While “Collision with Paradise” (now re-issued with eXtasy Books under Kate Wylde) was a hit with its few readers and was praised by Romantic Times and Yet Another Book Review, it hadn’t sold more than a thousand copies. Ebooks now outsell their print cousins 3:1 with sales in the hundreds of thousands for any given title.

Over the years I have observed a great difference in quality between ebooks and their harder-to-get-published print books. And I know the reason…

The easier something is to do or get, the less it will be valued; the easier it is to communicate, the less likely it will have deep meaning. Take the easy road, the slippery path, and you are sure to miss the view. And isn’t that the very reason you were journeying in the first place?

Are we sacrificing the quality of our journey to reach our destination, forgetting that the journey—living with meaning—is ‘part of that destination’?

Texting every ten minutes. Updating your Twitter every hour. Checking your Facebook page every few hours. Does that mean you are communicating more?

I used to talk to a good friend almost every day. The chats used to happen randomly but when we both had time to talk. We shared meaningful things, what was important to each other’s life. We gave each other the gift of time, compassion and understanding. Then as time passed, those calls became more routine and more rigidly timed; while they occurred perhaps more often, the calls became shorter and shorter, until soon nothing of meaning could be shared.

What does that have to do with anonymity? Everything.

When we do not cherish, preserve, and protect meaningful communication, we give away our freedom to be the individuals we are. We throw away our true gifts to the world. We turn into an anonymous society of avatar-wannabes with no genuine identity; texting, chatting, surfing an undifferentiated sea of information pixels.

If we do not say, “Here I am! This is what I believe!” those very beliefs will eventually be taken from us. If it’s too easy, it won’t be valued; if it isn’t valued, it will soon disappear altogether.

Anonymity is not the enabler of freedom of speech; it is its harbinger of death.

Stand up and be counted. Or you will lose your most precious thing: YOU. 

Nina Munteanu is an ecologist and internationally published author of novels, short stories and essays. She coaches writers and teaches writing at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. For more about Nina’s coaching & workshops visit www.ninamunteanu.me. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for more about her writing.

Is Our Language Going to Pot?

Technophobes and cynical columnists would tell you that our language is slowly eroding through text messaging, tweet-talk and email-speak. Before long, no one will be able to speak or spell properly, they lament. See my June 2007 blog article in response to an assertion that “blogging is clogging our internet” or check out Nebula Award-winning author Robert J. Sawyer’s topical article on creativity, multitasking and internet use by youth (the comments are interesting). You can read my synthesis on Sawyer’s article and some rather acidic comments in my April 2009 post entitled “Hitting a Moving Target—What is Normal?”.

Yet, recent studies suggest that, if anything, the opposite is true, reports Caroline Green in the Jan/Feb 2010 issue of the BBC Knowledge magazine. “All these new forms of communication are actually improving our language skills.” I couldn’t agree more. As an ecologist, I have observed that language, like many community-related biological phenomena, benefits from diversity, which creates opportunities for evolution and change. It proves that we are elastic and adaptive: always a good thing, as is change.

To Facebook or Not to Facebook: What’s the Right Social Network For You?

“You have to join Facebook, Margaret,” Heather insisted to my other fifty-year old friend after she lamented that she couldn’t keep up with what her kids or other friends were doing. According to iStrategyLabs in Washington, D.C., “the fastest-growing segments on Facebook are Gen Xers nearing age 40 and baby boomers pushing 60” (Scientific American Mind, Jan/Feb 2010).

Since its launch at Harvard University in 2004, Facebook’s memebership has swollen to over 250 million people in 170 countries and territories, beating out MySpace (with 125 million users), LinkedIn (a site for professionals), and Twitter.

The millions of social-network users are engaged in the largest experiment in social interaction ever conducted, says David Disalvo of Scientific American Mind (Jan/Feb 2010).

I started my Facebook account two years ago, in 2007, and confess I was initially on there daily, trying out all the applications, and I mean ALL of them, even the silly ones. I was trading messages, pokes, virtual gifts, insults, and all kinds of stuff with old and new friends. Back then, most of my existing close friends weren’t on Facebook yet—didn’t even know it existed—and I networked mostly with business colleagues and blogging friends from all over the world, many who I had never met. I had also joined three blogging communities, MyBlogLog and Blog Catalog and StumbleUpon. All three provided me with access to other like-minded people who also authored blogs. It was, in fact this community of bloggers who I later met again on Facebook, after we’d already established a good friendship through our blogs and associated networking community.

You’re Less Likely to Get Sick If You Actively Socialize

Isn’t that an oxymoron? More sociable people are more exposed to germs, after all. Yet a study by Sheldon Cohen and his colleagues published in Psychological Science (2003) showed that less sociable people caught colds more often than those who socialized. While that doesn’t follow the straight logic of exposure, it sheds light on the concept of mind-body dualism and the link between physical and mental health. People who socialize have a social identity, possibly multiple social identities, which seems to make them more resilient.

“Belonging to social groups and networks appears to be an important predictor of health—just as important as diet and exercise,” says a September/October 2009 article in Scientific American Mind by Jetten et.al. Socializing makes us healthier and more resilient. A 2005 study by Bernadette Boden-Albala at Columbia University found that socially isolated patients were twice as likely to have another stroke within five years as were those with meaningful social relationships. In fact, being cut off from others put people at far greater risk of another stroke than traditional factors like having coronary artery disease or being physically inactive, said the report.

Karen Ertel and colleagues at the Harvard School of Public Health, who tracked a large group of elderly Americans over six years, found “significantly less memory loss in those who were more socially integrated and active.” (American Journal of Public Health).

Does virtual socializing (e.g., social networking through Facebook, MySpace, blogging and chat-lines) contribute to better health like the examples above? That’s what researchers are still asking and some speculate that social networking provides a good socializing venue, particularly for those of us who are less mobile or otherwise more isolated from loved ones and close friends (through travel, for instance). But, researchers also suggest that this venue does not provide a totally satisfying substitute for face-to-face real-world engagement. It comes down to a healthy balance based on circumstance. Now more than ever, we have options for meeting new people, joining groups of like-minds (whether virtual or real) where we can safely be challenged and excited by life, associations that provide us with fulfilling activities and good mental health. I am an active blogger and online communicator (I travel a lot and find online chatting a wonderful way to keep in touch with family, friends and colleagues). I have also formed many associations through this venue, several of whom I have since met face-to-face and forged close friendships with.

That is, in the final analysis, the point: good mental health. You create your reality. Now, go socialize!


Photos:
Photo 1: I think this was some kind of cat-tormenting gang of the suburbs...
Photo 2: socializing at Times Square in New York City
Photo 3: The Witches of SF Canada

Nina Munteanu is an ecologist and internationally published author of novels, short stories and essays. She coaches writers and teaches writing at George Brown College and the University of Toronto. For more about Nina’s coaching & workshops visit www.ninamunteanu.me. Visit www.ninamunteanu.ca for more about her writing.