Tuesday, June 12, 2007
"Honesty" box? I don't think so...
One that showed up today in my profile is "The Honesty Box", which is described as "Honesty Box lets your friends tell you exactly what they think of you, anonymously"
... am I the only one seeing the problem, here?
One of the things that has proved remarkably true throughout the history of the internet is that communities that aren't underpinned by real identities and connections are the ones that go downhill in a blaze of flaming spite. Fast. What appeals to me about Facebook is that it encourages (but does not require) real names, and that it's strongly based on real connections. You invite the people you have an address for. You connect with people who have common interests or friends.
Maybe it's just me, but anonymously being able to say things that only the recipient can ever see just screams out as a bad idea. That's a recipe for adolescent power games and bullshit.
Honesty starts right here:
James
Labels: I think too much
posted by James at 11:12 AM
2 Comments:
This post has been removed by the author.
Hi James,
Sorry about the deleted comment. I have a Blogger account for some reason I don't remember, and accidentally used it to make the below post. I figured the letter "C" was not sufficient to identify myself.
The honesty box actually sounds very intriguing to me. I feel frustrated quite a bit by not being able to pull honest answers from people. I found the few times where I could see myself through someone else's eyes very enlightening, like the day I learned of my arrogance. A close friend called me an arrogant bully. I looked at him, laughed, and said, "You're right." I've somewhat embraced the arrogance, but I worked on the bully part.
I totally agree that it's also useful for high school crap.
I'm wondering if the honesty box could also curtail folks who collect names, and cause them to give more consideration to who they have as friends.
I'd be interested to hear what you think about the honesty box over time.
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