The purpose of using anonymity is to be unknown and this notion has been around even before the Internet was born. [5] The most functional usage of anonymity in society is to help conceal the speaker’s personal identity when he or she speaks out the truth or evidence against big organizations including a corrupt government. Speaking out these truths openly could endanger one 's life, therefore, anonymity has been used as a safe way to expose the immoral conduct of others without the fear of revenge. [6] Anonymity continued to shed some light about sensitive information that corrupt governments and corporation hides from the eyes of the public. These truths are heavily buried precisely because they negatively affect hundreds …show more content…
Andrew Weinreich founded a site called “Six Degrees” in May 1996 allowing people to have profiles, friend lists, and school affiliations on one site. [9] Six Degrees has become known to be the first social media site; however the lack of people with full access to computers and the proper Internet caused the site to dwindle. [9] Once the Internet connection caught up more sites such as “Friendster” (2002), “LinkedIn” (2003), “Myspace” (2003), and “Facebook” (2004) started becoming popular and allowing people to create profiles and stay connected with the friend lists. [9] The trend for social media has climbed rapidly over the past decade with almost 65% of American adults using some type of social media site in 2015. [10] The number of adult social media users was at 7% in 2005; that is a 58% increase in just 10 years. [10] This is due mostly to the advancement in technology, but also majorly due to our natural human instinct to want to make social connections with others. While the social media sites are ever changing and being replaced by new and improved sites, this is a trend that is going to keep growing and evolving as long as people have the desire to stay