Nowhere

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anonymous made or done by a person whose name is not known

to
A Look at the photos and the title of the reading. What do you think is the main point of the article?
Choose your answer and discuss your choice with a partner.

a.  What we do in our private lives can show up online so there’s a loss of privacy. 1 We used to view the Internet as a place of freedom—a by hundreds of thousands of people. “My friends and I
b.  There are new ways to uncover a person’s identity online so it’s impossible to hide. world all its own. When you went on the Web, you could 40 apologized to the owner of the car and offered to pay him
c.  Anyone can post online so it’s possible to get away with writing mean comments. be yourself, take on a new identity and pretend to be for the damages,” said the student. “We felt so bad. But
d.  Two videos online show that there are negative consequences to behaving disrespectfully in public. someone else, or simply remain anonymous. Whatever the video didn’t show that. It only showed us damaging
you said or did stayed online and did not interfere with the car.” The video was removed after a couple days,
B Read the article and check your answer in Activity A. Were you correct? your life offline. Likewise, your private life was your but the damage had been done. “I almost got suspended
own, completely separate from your online identity. You from school over this. My parents punished me. This
didn’t have to worry about things you said or did at work experience has practically ruined my reputation.”
C Find the words and expressions in the article that are the opposite of the ones listed below.
or school showing up1 on your computer. You could act We know that we’re losing our anonymity online.
Paragraph 1 Paragraph 4 10 goofy and it was no big deal. And now, it seems we are losing privacy and anonymity
Nowadays, new technology has changed offline as well. There are no restrictions around recording
1. Opposite of identified or known: _____________ 4. Opposite of repaired: ______________
everything, so that the separation between our two 50 video of what happens in public and putting it on the
2. Opposite of leave alone: _____________ 5. Opposite of posted (a video): _____________
lives is no longer well-defined. What we do offline (in Web. For now, you can get away with doing it.
3. Opposite of public: _____________
our “real” lives) can now be posted on the Web with It used to be a choice to go online and share
a few easy clicks. With cheap cell phone cameras and yourself with the world. Now we are entering a time
D Mark the statements that apply to the professional, the student, or both. free video hosting sites like YouTube readily available when someone else may be making that choice for us.
to anyone, photos and videos taken in public can be put In short, we may end up having a public face online—
The professional The student
online within minutes, sometimes with damaging results. whether we like it or not.
1.  The person’s behavior was caught on video. A professional in New York City discovered this the 1
showing up appearing 
2.  The video is online even now. 20 hard way. She was filmed on a
2
roughhousing  fighting in a playful way
3
incident an event 
3.  The person damaged someone else’s property. commuter train on her way home,
arguing with the train’s conductor.
4.  The person acted alone.
“I lost control,” the woman said.
5.  The person knows that no laws were broken.
“I was very tired from a long
6.  The person said, “I’m sorry.” day at work and I said some things
I wish I hadn’t.” That short argument
E Summarize the professional’s and student’s stories using the chart in Exercise D. Then answer the had negative consequences because the
questions with a partner. scene was filmed by another passenger on the
train and posted online that evening. Thousands
• What were the consequences of their actions? 30 of people are still watching the video every month. “I
• Do you think video of them should’ve been posted online? Why or why not? was disrespectful, it’s true,” said the woman. “I didn’t do
anything illegal, but it feels like I did . . . because everyone
is still criticizing me. It’s been terrible.”
Ask A similar story happened in England when a
Answer Imagine that everything you said and did today was posted online. young college student and his friends were filmed
How would you feel? How might you change your behavior? roughhousing2 after a big football match. The young
men damaged a car parked on the side of the road, and
a video of the incident3 was posted online and viewed
92 Unit 8 Think Twice 93

WC_L1_U8_p84-95.indd 92-93 3/22/12 10:07 AM