I’ve been liking Facebook quite a bit, and really like many of the apps that have been released for this social network. A couple of days ago, I installed the Honesty Box application. It allows people in your network to leave you anonymous comments. I was kind of nervous setting it up, and wasn’t sure what to expect.
Then, this comment came in:
“Yes the honesty box is dangerous! It gives cowardly people the chance to say hurtful things that they wouldn’t normally say to your face, and then it breeds mistrust among “friends”. You’d like to think that people wouldn’t be mean, but with anonymity, one’s morals, kindness, etc. tend to go out the window. You are very brave for getting an honesty box; I hope no mean/ hurtful words come your way. Then again, when someone says nice things, it is a shame they need an honesty box to do it, and they can’t just tell you to your face :-)”
This makes me think. Is a service like this more likely to get you negative comments that it would positive? Is this just a complaints box? I’m really interested to find out.
ive lost lots of self esteem becuase of this crap i recomend you dont get it
Yes, I agree that the Honesty Box is dangerous. But I think the danger is worth it given certain circumstances.
First, you must already be relatively self-confident. If you are, then the old “I’m rubber and you’re glue” principle comes into effect. You are able to discern the fact that good messages are more than likely honest, cruel messages come from cowards whose opinions are probably only their own and that some criticisms are honestly coming from friends who only want you to improve without hurting your feelings.
The second requirement is to have a good set of friends who will take the time to post creative and thoughtful messages in your honesty box.
A final psychological analysis of Honesty Box (from someone who knows nothing about psychology) is that when you get a positive comment, while you consciously know that it comes from one person, you subconsciously imagine it came from everyone, thus every positive comment feels especially good (the same thing occurs with negative comments, but that is what your self-esteem and superego are for–to tell you they don’t matter.)
Honesty box can be dangerous for it does give a lot of cowardly people the chance to freely voice any complaints about you that they otherwise would not bother saying to your face.
However, there is a definite upside. It gives people the chance to tell you how they feel about you without actually having to confess it to your face. Although this can be frustrating because you really wish to know who says these sweet things, usually they come with the confession of romantic interest and they just haven’t built up the courage to tell you while you know it’s them. But these comments often mean a lot because it lets you know that someone truly cares about you.
it contributes to cyber bulling .. it’s horrible what people say about you . and you can do nothing about it because you don’t know who they are . which makes it worse , cause when they are hiding behind honesty box so they have no reason to NOT say anything and everything they want .. They would never say it to your face , but it definitely gives them a chance on there . a lot of people including me have lost a lot of self esteem from it .