Friday is "Dear Millennial Law Prof" Day!

Dear Millenial Law Prof,

Why do Millenial students feel the need to post their rants anonymously? We other-generation-als are so much more honest when it comes to letting The Establishment know that we are pissed off at them for the bullshit that they have recently pulled. Why don’t Millenials have the guts to use their real names?

Signed,
Ironically Anonymous

First, a healthy skepticism of authority is transgenerational. Boomers said, "never trust anyone over 30." Xers grew up equating "education" with "thought control." Ferris Bueller was cool; the principal was not.

Next, though, the answer depends on what you mean by "anonymously." If you're talking about posting a rant under a screen name that doesn't readily identify the user's real name, I don't know that they necessarily consider that anonymous. I think that's a way to be known to one another without being known to authority figures. Many of them know each others' screen names; we just don't know them.

If you're talking about posting a rant and literally signing it "Anonymous," I think that's motivated by the need to express themselves (in Millennial culture, expressing every thought you have on the Internet is just what they do -- because it's so fast and easy to communicate everything they think, there's not much of a filter as to what should be shared and what should be private) combined with a healthy skepticism of authority. In the eyes of many students, posting a rant anonymously gets you the best of both worlds: you bring a problem to the attention of someone in authority, but you also get to maintain your public persona as a polite do-bee. Also, being a Millennial is a team sport, so they're far less likely than Boomers or Xers to do something that identifies them separately from the group, especially when lodging a "group" complaint.

As far as Xers being more willing to sign their own names to complaints or rants, that's not been my experience. I realize that's only anecdotal, but I don't think that Xers are more likely to put a complaint in writing (either in print or online) and then submit it over their own name. It seems like complaints in writing tend to be anonymous with Xers also. However, I do agree that Xers are more likely to lodge complaints in person with less concern about whether they are demonstrating an appropriate respect for authority. I wouldn't attribute that to courage necessarily; I think it's more of a lack of understanding of social structures and hierarchies. Xers aren't shrugging off the hierarchies they've been taught; Xers just weren't raised to know much about those hierarchies.

Ultimately, though, I think that Millennials have to be taught -- just as the Xers had to be taught -- that anonymous rants or complaints are rarely, if ever, taken seriously by those who have the power to do something about them. A complaint is only as credible as the person lodging it. If the only information we have about the complainer is that he lacks the courage of his convictions to come forward personally, we attribute low or no credibility to him. Therefore, the complaint itself is dismissed as meritless.

As far as a solution, most online discussion boards have a way to block Anonymous postings. So if you won't entertain them, just set the board so that they can't be posted in the first place. Some professors like to allow the Anonymous postings to encourage students to ask questions without being embarrassed. I don't think that's a good idea in law school, where students are training to be advocates. Students need practice in asking for help -- heaven knows they'll need that skill in the legal profession. Some of their future supervisors will be very approachable, and asking for help won't be an issue. Others will make it excruciating to ask for help, and the students need to know how to ask those people for help, too.

If, on the other hand, the anonymous rants are on student-run and student-controlled discussion boards that you have no control over . . . well . . . you have no control over that. I generally won't look at student discussion boards that are intended to be discussions among the students. They need a place to blow off steam. Whether or not I think the forum is appropriate for blowing off steam is beside the point, as far as I'm concerned. I try to respect their privacy even when they don't.