Masks, Anonymity, and the Internet

    Oscar Wilde and I may not agree with each other on a number of things, but I keep coming back to this quote, and how it relates to the internet.

    Here on the internet, we're given voices that have the potential to reach farther than we ever dreamed.  We have the capacity and are, in fact, encouraged to live through avatars and user names;  anonymous "masks" that keep anything we say or do here from touching us in the real world (at least in theory).  We surround ourselves with anything and everything that interests us, our own little "me" microcosms that concentrate, specify, and intensify our personalities both online and, to an extent, off.

     Here on the internet, introverts are given opportunities to speak freely with and to huge swaths of people, and that's frequently a good thing.  Lots of great new thoughts floating around for interested parties to absorb.  Those who wouldn't normally speak are now able to show themselves, their thoughts, and feel socially connected without actual face-to-face interaction.  Who knew they could actually be so chatty, right?  Always makes me wonder about what happens when introverted bloggers get around to meeting each other in real life; are they automatically at ease with each other, or is there suddenly a conversation block now that they're face to face?  But I digress...

     Because of the downright enormous population on the web, like minded people can also easily seek each other out and form communities around like-interests (even very finite things).  I was shocked three years ago to discover a whole community of similar people, the likes of which we've never really been able to connect with at home.  It helps and strengthens to know there are others out there like you, even if they are hundreds or thousands of miles away.  You can find period drama circles, if it floats your boat, crafting circles,  doll collecting circles,  musical circles, philosophical circles, political circles, movie circles, homeowner circles, parenting circles, even circles for really specified interests, like certain authors, TV shows, books or what-have-you.  The isolated can find their kind, and zone in on what few things really interest them.

     (Its no wonder many find it much harder to socialize in the real world these days.  If we're constantly surrounding ourselves with more and more of "ourselves", and interacting with people just like ourselves, it's hard to find common ground when interacting with another person.  But that's a whole 'nother barrel of monkeys yet to be expounded upon.)

     You can learn a lot about someone from their Blogger, Pinterest, or Facebook page.  My family has frequently mused on how our Pinterest pages really do paint a very strong picture of ourselves.  An interesting and somewhat unnatural thing about these profiles, though, is that the anonymity the web affords allows us to not just build internet "personas" without real life consequences, but begin to build these personas into everything we perceive ourselves as.  We sift through the menagerie of "likes" and quotes to narrow down what we think defines us, to create the image of ourselves we've always had in our heads.  For the first time, people will see us as we see ourselves.

     At least in theory.  I think, on a regular basis, these very probably skewed pictures we paint of ourselves speak volumes into how we see the world, ourselves, our families and really, when you get down to the nitty gritty, how we truly are.  Even if we try to fight it, internet profiles are frequently extremely accurate.  We find it much, much easier to display our rarely exhibited inner, or "true self", as opposed to our more public, exterior, "actual self" that we tend to use in everyday, face to face interactions.  Both "selves" are equally "us", but the inner self speaks a little more of our internal dialogue and thought process.

     There are definitely tremendous potential benefits to this anonymous self testifying to our true self.  As Matt Ridley mentions briefly in his article, psychiatric patients are more forthcoming about symptoms when typing into an online automated "doctor", poll subjects have been found to be much more honest on the internet than in phone polls, and of course, the Catholic church has for years been tapping into the practical use of anonymity by using screens to separate the priest from the confessor.  Studies have shown over and over again that our social inhibition is tremendously lessened via web interaction.

     Since conversation while looking someone in the face is typically fraught with responsive emotional signals, we all tend to instinctively temper ourselves based on how the other person has been responding thus far.  We see the signals, and adjust accordingly.  So when you wear the "mask" of internet anonymity,  you're not only removing yourself from the threat of getting physically hurt (and so, emboldened to push conversational boundaries), but you're also unable to read facial responses of hurt or anger from the other person.

     Even though this lack of face-to-face reaction is also seen in other modes of conversation like, say, letter writing, when combined with the complete separation from consequence that anonymity allows, the lightning fast speed at which these conversations can be carried out, the vast variety of the online community at large, and a general trivializing of people and interactions on the web, and you have a recipe for some serious mud-flinging.  This online disinhibition effect separates us from both consequence and self-censoring, allowing us to act unhindered and completely in line with how our inner, carnal, natural, sinful natures compel us to act.  As a result, cyber-bullying runs rampant and teens even commit suicide as a result of the hate and spewing from "masked" users on their phone and computer screens.

     If anonymity allows us to show the "truth" about ourselves, then the truth is definitely not pretty.

    Does this kind of behavior carry into real life?  I can't say for sure.  But I do think that however we conduct ourselves with the most regularity or frequency is more or less bound to affect what kind of people we become.  If you work a certain muscle, that muscle will grow stronger.  If you make your bed every morning, eventually that becomes habitual.  All the self-help magazines or websites will tell you that acting happy will, eventually, actually make you feel a little more happy.  It's even been said that acting like you're in love with someone will, over time, actually make you fall in love with them.  If our psyches really are this malleable to whatever habits or attitudes we exhibit, it's definitely grounds to pause and rethink what we do, and who we're becoming mindlessly day in, and day out, behind the mask.