The quality or state of being unknown or unacknowledged is called Anonymity. In her passage "The Anonymous Voice", Esther Dyson talks about anonymity, its benefits and misuses. Esther Dyson earned her degree in economics from Harvard and then began her career as a fact checker and then a reporter for Forbes, a business magazine. The main idea of this passage is to explain why people adopt anonymity. Esther Dyson begins her article with her own anonymous role in life, and then talks more about anonymity in practice, problems with anonymity, her experience at the WELL, and true life experiments. In today's world most of the people have second identity. Anonymity is in practice since decades. People send messages via blank calls and unsigned letters. Often a person has to play many roles in her life, in some cases she wants to be anonymous. Why? It is not necessary that anonymity is only for bad reasons, but there are also some legitimate reasons for which anonymity is good. "Socially, anonymity is a useful mechanism for people to let off steam, explore ideas of fantasies, and hide from social disapproval with a minimum of consequences" (115). There are always two sides of the coin: the head and the tail. Some people use anonymity to avoid everyday responsibilities and challenges, to take advantages of others" weaknesses, to betray their confidences, to misuse a totally open world, and to know others" secrets. .
Esther Dyson is not on either side of anonymity. Although she is more towards the bad side of anonymity, she also had anonymous role in her own life. She says that anonymity is not a totally bad thing as long as one doesn't misuse it. From the experience at the WELL, Dyson tries to show that how anonymity can be good or bad. On the positive side, people formed a tight little community, full of friendship and gossip, with deep friendships, and a few romances, some shared secrets and many more.
