Massive fail: The anti-social world of social media. Naked’s Adam Ferrier on anonymous comments
October 27 2009, 3:01 pm | | 8 Comments
NakedCommunications, Sydney planning partner Adam Ferrier – who spoke at theCaxton Seminar in Noosa on the weekend – believes the anonymous commenton blogs “is the bastard child of the Internet and social media, and isakin to giving the back row of the classroom an endless supply ofrubbers, and perpetual amnesty.” In this posting on The Punch Ferrier says:”They are free to attack an author at all levels while remainingcompletely unaccountable for their actions. The impact of this is aconstant fear of a pelting, and therefore suppression of speech andexpression.”
8 Comments
bahahahahahaha cop my eraser in your head! hahahahaha, although my personal favourite was wetting toilet paper and flinging it onto the roof of the dunny.
Adam – what you said is a load of rubbish on so many levels.
Bloody oath.
Whilst commenting on topics posted on this site *we bloggers are being ‘ asked for opinions on particular subject matter. Its a little like asking 10 people to review a car. 6 will like it and 4 won’t for a multitude of reasons. I suppose the 4 that don’t would deemed to be making a ‘negative’ comment. Take away peoples anonymity and they would be afraid to comment, and the site would surely come to a grinding halt…wouldn’t it?
* Not small Scottish people.
This from the Australia CB website:-
The problem with his argument is that, though anonymity does open the door to a few ratbags, it also opens up a much freer conversation.
In the world in which we live, it can be difficult – at times, dangerous – to freely express your opinion.
I once had a letter published in a national newspaper where I put forward the argument that removing Saddam Hussein would be a good thing for Iraq. I was immediately bombarded with hate mail. Lots of it. And much of it very threatening.
Now you may disagree with my views on that issue, but hopefully most Australians would agree that I have a right to express my an opinion and, also, that openly debating the issue was a good thing. But I have avoided sending any controversial comments to the papers since because my wife felt uneasy about the vitriolic response.
Many people feel the same way about discussing Global Warming. That’s why research shows that a huge part of the population is skeptical, but few people actually come out and talk about their skepticism.
Also, it’s worth remembering that we have secret ballots in elections – which is another anonymous comment. (Remember what used to happen before it became compulsory for unions to have secret ballots!)
In our industry, which is small and parochial, expressing opinions about certain work and certain strategies can be held against you for years and be very detrimental to your career.
So before we start calling everyone who writes anonymously a coward, let’s step back and think for a moment.
So many levels of cowardice.
I think in this town where so many people run scared of pissing off clients, particularly government clients, being Anon is the only way that some issues will get discussed at all. I am thinking of the discussion of the Tourism move which is a debate that never would of happened without the cloak of anonymity – just see how few people were willing to put their names to quotes in other media. I’m not sure if it it changed anything but at least it got people talking, and in this market that can’t be bad.
So I think the Anon posting can be used for good or evil – I think Adam’s take on it was pretty simplistic.
9.44 – Hello Mr Braveheart. is that your REAL name by the way.
Why not use your REAL name. Your reply is rather a contradiction don’t you think?