"[Y]ou think you can take it all, like, 'oh my god, that�s so funny, somebody called me a fat cow who deserves to be dragged through the street,' but it does affect you internally."

Said Lena Dunham, about everybody who uses Twitter � "whether you have a million followers or whether you have seven followers, because we all deal with the complexity of people being able to say things to you anonymously from behind the veil of the internet."

"I was like �the spelling�s so bad, I�m not taking these people seriously; they have eggs for avatars, I don�t care!� And you walk through the day and these horrible phrases are being repeated through your head� There are things that affect me; I�m weird, I�m affected by violence, threats of rape, I�m a mess!"

Her solution is not to look at Twitter at all. She writes her own tweets (she says), but sends them to someone else to post for her and to let her "know if there�s an important response."

This corresponds to what I was saying to that philosophy professor, quoted in in the NYT, who was dismayed about the insults she read about herself on Yik Yak. Don't look at it! Stop mentally engaging with it.

And this is a cue to quote 2 of my mother's favorite expressions: 1. "You're only encouraging them," and 2. "He's just trying to get a rise out of you."

"I have been defamed, my reputation besmirched. I have been sexually harassed and verbally abused... am about ready to hire a lawyer."

Wrote the professor who saw what her students were writing about her in Yik Yak, quoted in a NYT article about an app that displays anonymous comments.

I think this is the kind of thing professors should simply ignore. There's meaningless, mindless chatter out there. Getting mad or hurt about it is pointless. It's like worrying about every last thought that might be rattling about in the students' head. Chalk it up to freedom and move on. Teach better classes. Count yourself lucky to be a professor in the first place. Take advantage of the opportunity to grow a thicker skin. It's quite useful!