by Paul Marx, News Staff

Nowadays, personal spotlighting is all the rage. Spurred by social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter, Internet users of all demographics take questions like “What’s happening?” and “What’s on your mind?” quite literally and to the next level, with some sharing the more explicit elements of their lives through numerous status and photo updates.

“There’s a greater opportunity to share personal information,” said Robert Klein, director of Northeastern’s Behavioral Health Sciences Department. “The nature of privacy is changing.”

Enter Formspring.me. Launched last November, the site has been enjoying a sudden surge in popularity; according to the web analytics company Compete, the site’s number of unique visitors has gone from 520,641 in January to 1,008,665 in March. The site’s premise is simple: One daring soul creates a Formspring account, and invites his friends to partake in an online Q & A with three unassuming words: “Ask me anything.”

There is a catch, of course. While the answerer must create an account, the questioners do not. This means that anyone — friend, enemy, or stranger — can ask questions. The questions and answers are posted on a public bulletin, and the potentially provocative inquiries are available for all to see.

Klein said that many users don’t fully appreciate the emotional impact of such sites.

“Many internet users don’t understand how insulting or blatantly obscene people can actually be,” he said. “Healthy conversations sink to the bottom.”

The concept if Formspring is not new. Facebook’s Honesty Box had the same idea, where friends could say anything they wanted about a person without fearing attribution and perhaps retribution.

The impulse to join websites like Formspring is driven by curiosity. “We all want to know how we are perceived by others,” Klein said. “When you engage in anonymous interactions, there are significant risks. You should withdraw from the conversation at the hint of a threat.”

Margaret Montgomery, a senior psychology major, said she thinks Formspring can serve a purpose.

“Formspring is useful for people to ask questions that they might not feel comfortable asking in person,” she said.

Formspring’s Q & A focus puts the focus on the target, who has a profile and a profile picture, and not so much on the anonymous collective who dish out the pain. Klein said he sees a serious problem with this.

“People can be vulnerable to gauging their self-worth by public evaluations of their worth,” he said. “[The users] are risking [themselves] to considerable abuse.”

The negative, anonymous comments and questions can create a vicious cycle, as the affected members join the anonymous ranks to spread the hurt.

“It creates a feedback loop that perpetuates the damage,” Klein said.

Still, not everyone is an innocent victim. Some are seeking the same thrills that the questioners are seeking, and are complicit in the entire process; they’re asking for it.

Elizabeth Lipman, a middler psychology and education dual major, said she doesn’t see the point.

“I feel that most people don’t honestly want to know people’s real opinions—so most of the time people wind up getting upset by responses they get on Formspring,” she said. “It seems like a waste of time. I don’t see myself using it.”