Online identity and disinhibition

Even through this is a very common, and almost omnipresent thing nowedays, I hadn't thought deeply until I saw some posts today.

There are some very interesting effects in the way people talk to each other and the information they reveal about themselves when granted some of the tools of the internet such as anonymity or the chance to build an identity.

It looks like most people have less restraint online than in real life for a wide variety of reasons. Thinking about that, I had a kind of creepy realization: People act with less restraint over the Internet, but in it your actions are recorded and are public for anyone to see.

I've always found Internet sociology an interesting topic, but now I found its way bigger than I thought. Does anyone know about this, understand something or simply have some thoughts on the matter?

It's not really an internet thing. People act like total jerks in any large social setting, think sporting/music events.

I can act how I want because you have no idea who I really am, basically. I think posting habits would change if we all had some sort of International Troper Convention or something.

Which would be really cool, now that I think about it.

I could act like somebody different, I guess.

I don't really see the point, though. I don't really know who'd I be, aside from myself.

edited 8th Apr '11 5:58:35 PM by Zudak

It's a deindividuation thing. Psychologists have been all over it before the internet even existed.

I used to act this way in person, but I quickly learned that doing so marked me as an easy target for bullying. I find this site incredibly liberating.

This one is much less paranoid in the net than in real life, but still tries to not say things she would not be willing to back up (not necessary initiate, but back up if pressed with direct question) in real life.

Well, I sometimes think that this kind of anonymity makes you free to be you in the purest possible way. Nobody to tell you what to act like, no feeling restrained by who you are, where you're from or what you are. Heck, you actually get to pick your own name. People can know you as you'd like them to. I actually feel like online life, free from the chains of meatspace, physical being and such, can feel fair and just.

...

Am I being sappy?

By the way, from looking at the Wikipedia article, the deindividuation thing sounds more like something from meatspace rather than online (i.e peer pressure makes you act a certain way, people expect you to obey social norms, and whatnot)

edited 9th Apr '11 1:07:54 AM by ThatHuman

I'm actually less outspoken and conflict seeking on the internet than IRL. Usually I won't post on forums/fora without having my inhibitions reduced already. This leads to me mostly lurking around of fora until I find something that I can post in w/o feeling like I disrupt the conversation, while IRL if I ahve something to say that fits a current conversation within a certain range I say it.

Me too.

I always think twice before posting information here, but if I have, then that means that I trust all the people that read it...

If you were a close friend of mine and you read all the posts I had posted in the forums, without knowing who I was beforehand, then you might actually realize that it's me.

I can tell who's who. I can tell by the way my close friends send out their messages, use emoticons and the like...

Also, you can start flame wars on the internet with other users, but you can retreat. It's your choice to reply to those angry messages. You can also stop using that website. You can't do that in Real Life. In real life, people will hurt you more. You can't run away.

edited 10th Apr '11 4:48:43 AM by theindefiniteone

I can see how in theory you'd be disinhibited by anonymity, but it doesn't seem to work that way for me. There isn't really anything I've said/revealed here that I wouldn't say/reveal to real-life friends or family anyway. And I don't think I'd get away with inflicting the Wangst/complaints that I lay on them, here.