Putting a Name to a Comment

JJ Russo

Jr925512@ohio.edu

Putting a Name to a Comment

In reading the article “Is Facebook the Solution to the Obnoxious Comment Plague?” it brought up the situation of Internet abusers taking to comments to express how they feel in an untasteful way. The first magazine that took action in trying to stop this was USA Today. They started the system where if you wanted to comment online on any of their articles, you had to be signed in to your Facebook so others would know who is saying the comment rather than keeping it anonymous. I think this was a great move by the magazine to bring focus to obnoxious comments that surface the Internet. However I do believe there can be a more efficient way to do this.

www.thegatewaypundit.com

I do fully support the idea of putting a name with the comments and yes; the most logical way is Facebook. Every one, old or young, that uses the Internet enough to comment on articles has a Facebook. What this connection with the specific social media site, it is completely disregarding the use of all other ones and shows the full support for Facebook. This is basically saying to the public, “You must be on Facebook if you want to hear your opinion heard on our article.” The article also brought up the tactic of creating a fake Facebook profile. It would be a pretty drastic act to do but there are some people out there that do not want their name associated with their opinions. We live in a very untrustworthy world on the Internet.

Fake profiles are things that we will never be able to get rid of in today’s world unless it was taken to drastic measures. What I can suggest is breaking ties with Facebook and creating your own account with whatever magazine you want to comment on. This shows the magazine has no direct ties with only one social media and allows people that may not have Facebook to sign in. Let’s be honest, the only people that will make an account with the magazine are the ones who want their opinions heard and those are the people we want commenting.

There is also the concern that people are getting bored of Facebook and looking for new social media sites. A writer from uncrunched.com said, “Facebook today is so crowded and messy that no one ever goes there anymore.” Today's world has people that are always looking for something new. Facebook has been around for a very long time in the social media world and cannot expect to produce how they have been in the past. With the limitation of commenting being restricted to only Facebook, this will be another concern in the near future that the magazine company will have to address.

Since USA Today took the initiative in addressing the obnoxious comment situation, they have begun to lay down a path for the future. Obviously this is not the most efficient solution and there are many more steps to be taken to stop these annoying people, but this was a move that was truly made in the eyes of the public. 

https://www.uwc.ac.za/Faculties/CHS/Announcements/Pages/We're-on-Facebook!.aspx