Don't sacrifice your anonymity

My views on anonymous posting have changed semi drastically after reading texts about experiences or examples of people who rely on it- or take advantage of it. Before we started the unit 'Online and Anonymous,' I was convinced that most people who hid behind anonymity were those who were too afraid to face their reality of their cruelty, or were those artsy kids who expressed themselves through their art online. But as far as I could think of, those were the only two identifiable reasons that people would have to continue to hide behind an anonymous face. However, then we read our final article and it layed out a new argument of people trying to contribute to society or find romance or entertainment or financial security or medical help without risking their safety. There are people in the world who rely on having the option to remain anonymous because it protects them, not because they want to harm anyone on the internet. Because of people and situations such as these, anonymity should be protected. We should not allow it to be stripped away from us because immature internet users decide not to behave properly.