Megan Lambert

Dr. Shannon Carter

ENG 1302-H
14 November 2011
Ask, Answer, Discover. These are the three things one sees when they go onto Yahoo!
Answers, a community where one may ask questions and acquire answers Irom experts and non-
experts on any given topic. Topics are organized into categories such as Arts and Humanities,
Science and Mathematics, Family and Relationships, etc. as well as several sub-categories. With
a Yahoo! Answers account, one can create a proIile Ior use on the website, link all their
questions and answers together, and gain points Ior certain activities. This web community is the
center stage Ior my project, which discusses the eIIects oI internet anonymity on selI-disclosure.
As I have been visiting this website, I have learned more about the community as a whole and
how it aIIects literacies.
There are several ways in which people may use Yahoo! Answers, despite the
deceptively simple tagline, 'ask, answer, and discover. For example, under 'Ask, I Iound
people asking about travel arrangements:




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Figure 1, A user asks Ior opinions on Iamily travel plans.

However, I also Iound people asking Ior relationship advice:

Figure 2, A user asks Ior advice in dealing with 2 Iriends.
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Some oI these questions I Iound, especially in the popular 'Family and Relationships category,
tended to be high in word count. This could be due to the complexity oI the issue, or the asker`s
involvement in the situation at hand:

Figure 3, A user asks Ior opinions on a potential relationship.






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Figure 4, A user asks Ior advice on an issue with her sister






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Figure 5, A user asks Ior help in interpreting his dream.





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Figure 6, A user asks Ior advice in dealing with his signiIicant other.

These questions are only a small sampling oI what I have gathered thus Iar in my
research oI the website. Topics range Irom homework help to health to current events to art
critiques. However, in my research I am most interested in the inIormation users will share with
one another knowing the diversity oI the audience, most users being complete strangers. While
most activities on the website are only open to registered users, anyone with internet access may
read any question or answer, as well as rate individual`s answers, making that activity available
to several million people. While I am surprised by how many users will divulge several intimate
details in a single question such as dream descriptions and Iamily disagreements, I am also
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somewhat disheartened at the situations users will bring to this anonymous internet community
but not to trusted Iamily members, Iriends, or counselors. Take user RE*, who has the Iollowing
activity on the website:

Figure 7, User RE`s ProIile.



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Figure 8, User RE responds to a question asking about her Iirst sexual experience.



Figure 9, User RE asks a question about a recent ex.





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Figure 10, Question by user RE and the best answer to it chosen by the Yahoo! Answers voting
community

Although RE does not have revealing inIormation on her proIile as some other Yahoo!
Answers users, she does give every anonymous surIer oI the internet Iull disclosure about her
relationship with her child`s Iather. In two questions, one answer and an assumption on the part
oI the spectator that RE is reIerring to the same man in Figures 8,9 and 10, we know the major
points oI this intimate relationship. In Figure 10, RE asks a very serious question relating to
suicide to experts and non-experts on the subject. Although she claims she is going to multiple
sources and asking Ior assistance, she did not explicitly say she called 911, urged the man to get
help, or remove any access he had to potential suicide tools as recommended by the National
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Institute oI Mental Health. The 'best answer she received does not mention this either. Other
users ask Ior health advice with mixed results:

Figure 11, A user asks the Yahoo! community about her chest pains.

Although the 'best answerer in this case does give sources, this is no substitute Ior
proIessional medical advice. Yahoo! Answers links to a Iull disclaimer detailing how no answers
are monitored or checked Ior accuracy at the bottom oI each page oI the website. This disclaimer

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also warns users that answers are not a substitute Ior legal advice, but as we have seen in past
examples there are always users who do not make Iull use oI the disclaimer:


Figure 12, A user asks Yahoo! Answers Ior legal advice.

Some users ask questions that are not speciIically warned against in Yahoo! literature, but
I still wonder iI they would be better asked to a psychologist or counselor instead oI the general
internet community:

Figure 13, A user asks Ior advice in dealing with an allegedly cheating parent.
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Figure 14, A user asks other`s opinion on how he will Iare aIter moving several miles away Irom
his parents.


Figure 15, A Iemale user asks opinion on whether she should raise her child or explore
alternatives.

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Several Iactors might draw a user to ask these questions over the internet, but at least one
I suspect is its sheer diversity. In a Iew clicks and keyboard taps, one can ask Ior advice Irom a
community where they and everyone involved in their situation is completely Ioreign. The
advice they receive is unbiased, not inIluenced by personal emotions, obligations or attachments
as the asker may be.
The diversity oI the internet also means Yahoo! Answers has several questions that some
would consider abnormal, obvious, or conIusing:

Figure 16, A user asks what would happen in an unusual hypothetical situation.




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Figure 17, A user asks Ior advice on how to wash clothing.



Figure 18, A user asks about the history behind a commonly used expression.



Figure 19, A user asks a question about a question.


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Yahoo! Answers is creating a new dimension oI literacy, not previously seen beIore. It
was only a Iew decades ago when sharing these types oI intimate details with anyone but a close
Iriend or two was unheard oI. Now, the new 'norm oI the community is to reveal all, in the
hopes that another has been through a given situation beIore or could oIIer an unbiased third-
party perspective. As I continue conducting Iield research on the website, I hope to Iind even
more inIormation about the environment`s eIIect on selI-disclosure oI the community and,
indirectly, how literacy is impacted by it.
















Works Cited

*Screen Names changed
Yahoo! Answers. Yahoo! Inc. Website. 5 November through 14 November 2011
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