New social media site provides anonymity
By Carter Ashforth, Staff Writer
As current young adults at Gettysburg College, we have witnessed the birth and growth of social media and have truly been swept away by the colossal monsoon that social media has become. I, like many others, can remember the moment when I first signed up for Facebook in the ninth grade after my then-boyfriend insisted it would help us to better stay in contact. I never would have guessed that almost seven years later, I would go from being one of the first students in my grade with a Facebook to being one of 200 million estimated people with this social media phenomenon. It is difficult for many to even envision a world without social media, especially living in a society as connected as the United States. Now, our identities have gone viral.
The latest form of social media, Social Numbers, allows people to interact without sharing any personal information about themselves. On this site, you have no identity. As Breeanna Hare of CNN reports, “A new social networking site, Social Number, caters to those who have a preference for anonymity. Instead of a name or a handle or a thumbnail photo of themselves, users are identified only by a number. In this way, the site encourages users to discuss anything, from a bad job to a hot-button social issue to a substance-abuse problem, without fear that the conversation could be connected to their real-world identity.”
This is a fairly unique idea, considering since the beginning of Facebook and Myspace, social media has made our identities very public. This has caused a general concern for safety. Social Numbers allows its members to be identified by a simple six to ten digit number. MK, the anonymous chief executive of Social Numbers, told Upstart Business Journal that, “We feel that right now there is no privacy on any social networks. People get fired for saying the wrong things. Governments come after you for just expressing your thoughts.” Regardless, this latest social media site is giving the public a new outlet for connection.
Although I have grown up with social media, I have spent little time questioning it. What is the point of social media? Why do we engage in social media? Will Social Numbers be a hit? Has social media changed our world? Senior Psychology major, Haley Stauch, is one of many young adults almost always attached to the social media world. She is an avid fan and very active member of both Facebook and Twitter, two of the most common means of internet interaction. She admits to being dependent on it, now more than ever, with smart phones. She uses it to stay connected with people, express opinions, and “simply fill downtime while surfing the web.” It bothers her, though, that so many people know so much about her, people she would never even consider a “real” friend. Senior Physics major, Sarah Lehman, on the other hand, deactivated her Facebook account about a month ago and now only uses twitter. Contrary to what MK said, she is not worried about her identity. She deactivated it mainly because she finds it to be a waste of time. She feels that social media has strayed from it’s original purposes, and has now become a method to overcome boredom. She expressed a sincere concern that Social Numbers would become a source of vicious, unintelligent, and hurtful debates. The power to anonymously post anything is often misused in a harmful way. Lehman says it has simply, “changed the way we do things, not what we do.”
With the release of this new social media, we cannot help but question, are we becoming just a number?
