online anonymity and self expression on the internet

[SWM]

listening to a radio program on the way home from work today, there was a comment about anonymity and the internet which got me thinking aboutthis topic

there seems to be a consensus, and i may be wrong in that but it does seem so to me, that people on the internet who are angaged in interactions with a degree of anonymity find it easier to be themselves.

do you think this is true, or is it just me that thinks this?

these seems to present a paradox that people are more able to be themselves when they are anonymous. so by hiding themselves they can show themselves?

what think you folks?

[Karaten]

Themselves in what sense? It could be the side of them they fear showing, to an extent. You may feel more open on the internet, certainly, but really, it depends on how you define one's self. It seems to me that in the world we live in, methods and response to social pressure are a part of someone's personality, and, to a degree, defines who they are.

[ozziemate]

Themselves in what sense? It could be the side of them they fear showing, to an extent. You may feel more open on the internet, certainly, but really, it depends on how you define one's self. It seems to me that in the world we live in, methods and response to social pressure are a part of someone's personality, and, to a degree, defines who they are.

agrees....certainly a part of the person is more natural and unfortunately not always the better part. Expressing thing that would other wise be restrained due to taking advantage of anonymity to vent their frustrations gained from their normal ofline normal lives.

Mr Jeckle often gets to meet Mr hyde...

[SWM]

Themselves in what sense?

exaclty, i think this is part of the discussion. what is that part of people that only feels comfortable when other parts are hidden or discguised.

is it possible that anonymity can be a disinhibitor in the way that alcohol or drugs can disinhibit a person to make them more sociable more honest.  i use disinhibitor as only one possible effect of this anonymity effect.

It could be the side of them they fear showing, to an extent. You may feel more open on the internet, certainly, but really, it depends on how you define one's self. It seems to me that in the world we live in, methods and response to social pressure are a part of someone's personality, and, to a degree, defines who they are.

i think you are right, it would make sense that social roles and conditioning are factor. is this perhaps something about self image, and maintaining positive self image to the world.

[S. Earl Martin]

I have wondered about this effect myself and have alluded to it on some of the other threads. I believe it is several possible factors coming into play.
1. Fear of being caught or having to deal with the personnel consequences. On line people can say things and to an extent do things that if they were in person might have unpleasant consequences. I have read things that were posted that could lead to personnel confrontation or legal action, but because the parties were on line it just resolved eventually on it's own.
2 Group mentality everyone else is doing it. People could be taking part in an activity or discussion that other people are doing and just going along with the rest of the board members.
3 Bragging or showing off. I have seen times when people have posted criminal activities on line and been caught. Other times people might be seeking approval or positive reinforcement. 
One of the things about meditation was that in a true mediation setting people can say what ever they want. Even criminal activity can be discussed and as long as it is not threatening someones life or health adversely, or endangering children for the most part it is not disclosed. When ever the mediation service thought they might have a mediation that could turn violent they would ask me or another mediator who had police or martial arts training to sit in and make sure that the parties didn't become physical. I believe this is a similar effect to what happens on line. Many times people who had been intimidated by the other party would open up and defend themselves once they realized that the other parties potential threat had been neutralized. The drama that can unfold in a mediation is really something. Of course it is impossible to know everyones motivation for their actions. Even they probably don't know exactly why they do what they do.

[ozziemate]

Earl:

I have wondered about this effect myself and have alluded to it on some of the other threads. I believe it is several possible factors coming into play.
1. Fear of being caught or having to deal with the personnel consequences. On line people can say things and to an extent do things that if they were in person might have unpleasant consequences. I have read things that were posted that could lead to personnel confrontation or legal action, but because the parties were on line it just resolved eventually on it's own.
2 Group mentality everyone else is doing it. People could be taking part in an activity or discussion that other people are doing and just going along with the rest of the board members.
3 Bragging or showing off. I have seen times when people have posted criminal activities on line and been caught. Other times people might be seeking approval or positive reinforcement.  
One of the things about meditation was that in a true mediation setting people can say what ever they want. Even criminal activity can be discussed and as long as it is not threatening someones life or health adversely, or endangering children for the most part it is not disclosed. When ever the mediation service thought they might have a mediation that could turn violent they would ask me or another mediator who had police or martial arts training to sit in and make sure that the parties didn't become physical. I believe this is a similar effect to what happens on line. Many times people who had been intimidated by the other party would open up and defend themselves once they realized that the other parties potential threat had been neutralized. The drama that can unfold in a mediation is really something. Of course it is impossible to know everyones motivation for their actions. Even they probably don't know exactly why they do what they do.

Very interesting.....hmmmm
I have often wondered about the benefits that the internet offers for personal development and self exporation of potential.
If one takes an over view and sits back and does an assessment over say a time frame of 50 years one can speculate on how the use of the internet provides enormous therapeutic benefit to persons that have needs in self expression, loneliness, and issues they would normally find embarrassing or awkward in a public domain.
As a form of therapy given the anonymity factor, I believe the internet provides for growth and maturation that would other wise not be available.
Of course like it is with any therapeutic environment a certain amount of "pain" and sufferance is required to provoke change not only to the "challenger" but also to those that are "challenged" out of their comfort zone.
Also one other very important benefit is that on most occasions , certainly with forums like this one, the person must convert his thoughts into written form, coherently and then must take deliberate and not accidental action to post those written thoughts. This has I believe significant therapeutic value for those who have difficulty unscrambling their beliefs and ideas and also terrific benefit for those who wish to further improve on already adequate "thought" to "expression" skills and abilities. Keeping  arecord of those creative outputs and reassessing the approach and articulation is also very therapeutic and a great learning strategy.
So all in all the advent of on-line communications I believe to be a very positive therapeutic and obviously by default social environment.
As Earl has mentioned I tend to feel that online mediation due to anonymity guarantees, provides and excellent environment for group therapy and learing experiences. The key I believe is the as Earl has also indicated, is the anonymity factor.
As an example: It has taken me nearly 3 years of online exposure to get comfortable of posting my picture as an avatar. To do so was actually quite a leap of faith for me and even though it still dos not directly breach anonymity, given the size of the audience population [ global] is still takes a certain confidence to post it.

[Kallisti]

There's a bunch of research backing up the ideas in here actually. I can dig up some citations if anyone wants them.

[S. Earl Martin]

Data is always welcome. It is one thing to speculate, but to actually do a quantitative measurement that is when things really get interesting.
Also I noticed that in my previous post I put mediation, but it got changed to meditation in some places. It could have been my error. The old brain doesn't work like it used to. 
I believe we all wear masks to an extent. Putting on the "proper" image in different situations. Maybe the net allows us to be ourselves more as well as being someone else?

[Kallisti]

Once I'm hooked up at uni and have better access i'll go through my notes and pull some papers then.

[DarkPoet]

I'm not completely sure about self-expression in general but I feel the anonymity the internet provides can give a person more confidence to talk and interact more than they normally would sometimes. Whether this is beneficial or detrimental is yet to be seen, I think it can be both. It can be beneficial to introverts who need help in coming out of their shells and detrimental if this is overused so much that people forget how to participate in normal social interactions.

[S. Earl Martin]

COOL! Thank's

[S. Earl Martin]

Darkpoet: I agree, it can be both.
Another phenomenon I have noticed is a new way of speaking. In George Orwell's 1984 New Speak was the language. It was a shortened form of speaking using different forms of abbreviation and shortened word forms. The internet and texting are actually developing this in reality.

[Kallisti]

Newspeak was developed with the idea of limiting the exchange of ideas though.  Netspeak mostly does the opposite, because it can be inserted into normal English.  And in many cases it expresses new ideas, or things that didn't need to be expressed verbally in the past very often.  ('lol' is a good example, though emotions and other expressions of amusement are better in my opinion.  'lol' just isn't funny the way laughter is.

A fair bit of newspeak worked its way into English too for positive purposes 'groupthink' in particular.

As for the positive/negative effect of all this, that depends on your goal.  yes the internet allows people with certain forms of social anxiety to be social, but it also keeps the same people from the loneliness that might propel them to overcome their anxiety.

[ozziemate]

and that is indicative of how fast our society is moving as information needs ot be transmitted in shorter and shorter bursts, packing more meaning into a few words than ever before....

[S. Earl Martin]

Kallisti: good observation about Newspeak vs Netspeak!
Ozziemate: I agree that some of the goals of netspeak is to save time and convey a certain idea or ideas in a concise burst of information.

[rsinohara]

One thing that hasn't been mentioned is the number of possible interactions. While in real life social interactios you would need more time to bond, have a stronger emotional effect due to proximity, this is not true online. One can quickly engance in a huge number of conversations, and an unseccessful experience can easily be discarded and forgotten. No attachment or emotional cost.

This could mean a different strategy. It makes sense that real life it is best to aim for performance, making most of any interaction and 'playing it safe', but that's completely unnecessary on the internet.

So maybe it's not just about the person being anonymous, but the fact that it's counterparts will also be easy to discard.

Freedom to show the real self without fear has to be part of this, but controlling how attached you get to a person can be very helpful, specially for those who usually are the ones who suffer from being discarded.

[ozziemate]

Overall it means don't you think a solid revamping of the notions of what "relationship" means and is defined.
For example Net promiscuity is endemic. In other words people experiencing intimate relationships on the net do not feel the same need for "strong" monogamy as they might in real life.
Is this worth discussing as part of this thread?

[Karaten]

I've done some investigation and seems people are equally conforming within anonymous groups as they are in ones where they are held responsible.

I've viewed the behavior of the internet people in several environments, and it seems that even in anonymity, people will simply go to a place where they conform and will feel ashamed if mocked, even if their identity is unknown.

To put it simply, I see little to no difference in human behavior, besides the fact that people's options in which society to conform to is expanded.

This then goes to show me that people enjoy being separated into groups of people they relate to, and feel uncomfortable when forced into a group with people different than them.

[Xen]

just wrote in a thread earlier today about this very suject. it was about vulgar youtube users and why they say what they say online.

im about to pass out here so ill keep it short, think of the internet as peoples' universal "no repercussions venting outlet" whether they need to be someone else or just blow off some steam.