Being able to be anonymous online has it's pros and cons. In my opinion, I think there are "sides" to these advantages and disadvantages. Depending on our perspective of how we should use the internet, we may look at "pro versus con" in a different way. The average internet user would think of online anonymity as a way of protecting one's own privacy. However, this may be contrary to that of a troll. I believe that in the eyes of an online troll, they would think the pros of anonymity would be something like "They won't know who I really am so I cannot get in big trouble" or "I can totally mess with this person under this name and get someone else in trouble for it." Whether or not a user is civil, the usage of online anonymity can be used as a shield for some and as a claymore for others.
Anonymity allows us to have a representative persona on social networks, blogs, forums, games, and basically the internet as a whole. Trolls may try to taint this image, but we should know that this is not who we really are. But do we really consider the things that are said online, in particular the comments of trolls, to be damaging to our own real self? Have we dramatized our real world characters and put them as subjects on the internet? Why can't we dismiss it? Ignoring it won't solve the problem completely...
Anonymity online is both a gift and a curse..
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