One of the disadvantages of living on an active college campus is the number of events and student groups trying to get your attention. Fliers, posters and banners compete to have the loudest colors, the largest fonts and the most "outrageous" slogans. Sure, they might grab a second look, but after that point they're just annoying.
The current champion for most annoying advert is a series of boxes found around campus soliciting "secrets" for the Duke Unmasked project. Students are encouraged to write down their secrets and put them in the box, or to send them in to the project's Web site. These secrets will be exhibited at the Duke Unmasked March masquerade cocktail party.
This part of the Duke Unmasked program is reminiscent of-and inspired by-the Center for Race Relations' "Me Too" campaign which has been posting comments from Duke students for almost a year. "All comments," the Web site assures, "are completely anonymous." The following is a fairly representative selection of posts to the blog:
"The one thing that I never fail to do is prove to myself again and again what a failure my life is."
"I'm tired of being judged by people, especially my friends."
"I am so tired of being lonely. Will someone please just love me? If only for a little while..."
And so on, for many pages. When I first heard about the Me Too campaign, I admit I rolled my eyes a little bit, but hey, I figured, maybe it'll be cathartic for some people. But now that I'm seeing these boxes everywhere asking me to bare my soul in secret, I've started to wonder whether we're not placing a little too much value on the virtue of anonymity.
Anonymity has been used to great effect, certainly. The writers of the Federalist Papers spring to mind. Of course in that case, the issue was not protection of the author from association with the idea, but rather the opposite. Certain whistle-blowers have needed the protection of anonymity, but they usually have a real fear for their security, or at least their jobs. Anonymity is a lot harder to justify, however, when it comes to self-perception and personal relationships.
I may be a little bit biased; I spout opinions on various subjects every week right next to my name and photo. People can and do send me personal responses, both positive and negative, and neither is a particular burden. Now this means one of two things: either I'm the model of social courage (in which case, we're in trouble, folks) or it's just not that hard to take responsibility for what you say.
People may jump at the chance to say what they "really" think, but quotes like those above seem to me to be the sort that one should be embarrassed to have one's name attached to. Anonymous comments can be whiny and self-serving, and they can attack others without giving them any recourse.
I mean, at what point do we just tell people to suck it up? Do you feel lonely or inadequate sometimes? Welcome to the human race. Do you have bad friends? Talk to them about it, or get some new ones. It's not that terrifying. Are your problems deeper than that? Chances are making an anonymous statement won't be enough to make things better. Am I being a bit harsh? Probably. But I don't think we're doing any better when we encourage people to constantly mope about the imperfections of an imperfect world, rather than take action to fix them or bite the bullet when they can't.
There's a fundamental question of responsibility here. When your name is attached to your statements, assertions and opinions, you have to deal with the repercussions that result. That's called being an adult. Anonymity allows you to shirk that responsibility, and childish irresponsibility is the result one can expect. JuicyCampus, anyone?
If we've reached the point where anonymity is necessary for the telling of the truth, we're worse off than I think we are. And if what you've got to say is really worth saying, it should be worth putting your name next to.
Oliver Sherouse is a Trinity senior. His column runs on Wednesdays.
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.