 2003 JITI Journal of Information Technology Impact Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 3-10, 2003 The Impact of Technology Induced Anonymity on Communications and Ethics: New Challenges for IT Pedagogy Robert A. Saldarini * Bergen Community College New Jersey, USA Eugene M. DeRobertis ** Brookdale Community College New Jersey, USA Abstract This exploration was a phenomenologically inspired description and interpretation of the social impact of information technology. The authors argue that the perceived anonymity of on-line interactions diminishes the sense of responsibility that is experienced when communication occurs in-person. When the face is inaccessible, potentials for unethical comportment are opened up due in no small measure to the burgeoning of perceived anonymity. Transgressions, facilitated by cybernetic distancing and the anonymity that it yields, constitute a new E-ethics dimension. Though anonymity is periodically characterized as the essence of one’s personal privacy, it is the authors’ contention that privacy and anonymity can be viewed as relatively distinct dimensions of human existence. The perception of anonymity can provide the means for invasions of privacy. Privacy is understood as a guarantor of individuality while anonymity strives toward the absence of personal identity. To be sure, the impact of a technologically induced feeling of anonymity has generated a “new self,” one that will continue to expand in the 21 st century. In the past societal issues were not content items in technology syllabi as most information and computer science courses focused solely on the transformation of data. However, technology curricula can no longer exclude the social dimension of information technology impact. Keywords: Technology induced anonymity, e-ethics, social impact, phenomenological description, on-line self, IT Pedagogy, IT course content. Introduction Since the advent of the Internet and subsequent introduction of the World Wide Web in 1992, technologically mediated communication has been undergoing a growth rate of geometric proportion. E-mail, Internet-Relay Chat, Web pages, image postings, voice files, and bulletin board postings comprise the overwhelming majority of on-line human dialogue. As primarily linear text processing, current communication technology has quickly beckoned the creation of personalizing characteristics such as emoticons. With comparable haste, the term “flaming” has been coined whereby loaded and biased language, insults, and derogatory humor offend the