Anonymity != license to be rude

The anonymity behind online social networking is bringing out the monster in many of us. A report by Pew Internet reported that about one-third of all teenagers who use the Internet have been subject to some form of cyberbullying. It seems that many people are using the Internet to unload emotions that they would never share with a person face-to-face. Because what they say can't be traced back to them it somehow justifies the malice they inject into their online posts. Jacqui Cheng, a writer for Ars Technica, said in his article entitled Memo to Internet nutjobs: Please, think before you post that cyber-harassers need to "realize that [their] words aren't going into a black hole. They're being read by other people—a lot of them, in some cases." Internet users need to understand that the things they say online are not being sent off into a nonexistent virtual world, but they are published to real people in the real world. I'm sure many of us have had experiences that have taught us the importance of thinking before we speak. Now let us take that advice and apply it to the world we live in today and make sure we think before we post.