Anonymity and the Internet

The internet is a unique place where everyone is able to keep their personal identities secret from everyone else. While usernames serve as your name on the internet and people recognize you by that name, they can be easily discarded and replaced. This anonymity is an influential part of the internet culture and is often misinterpreted and misunderstood by people who don’t spend a lot of time online.

Many people take advantage of their anonymity by causing people trouble and being incredibly rude with no perceived consequences. As a result there are a lot of people on the internet out to ruin your day. This phenomenon is academically known as the online disinhibition effect, but is also known as GIFT (Greater Internet F-wad Theory). People who go out of their way to make other people angry are known as “trolls.” They can do very cruel things such as insulting someone who has passed away on their memorial page. More common trolls just try to make people angry by saying very stupid things and purposely arguing with people. People who are more experienced on the internet are able to spot them and avoid engaging them, but even then there are a few that cannot resist correcting them.

Trolls also like to cause conflict, such as bringing up controversial topics. This causes massive arguments that are known as “flame wars” that can devolve into insults being flung everywhere. These wars can start on their own and are often about rivalries, politics, or religion. In order to prevent conflicts, many websites have rules against posting about religion and politics. Many communities also have unspoken rules about what not to talk about. Though sometimes, some conflicts end with everyone acknowledging the other side as their personal preference and move on. Or it could be that anyone who brings it up is immediately perceived as a troll trying to reignite the flame war or someone who legitimately didn’t know any better and tell them to not bring it up.

Because of the anonymity, it is possible to have many different personas. This gives a lot of freedom on the internet and, in addition to causing trolls to appear, causes communities to develop. On any website, you are only able to know what a person’s username is and their status within that community. In addition, each community/website has a specific purpose, such as a gaming website or a TV series fan site. Everyone within that site shares a common interest in that website and is most likely to get along within that site. When anonymous, a person is able to be a member of multiple communities and can feel safe knowing that nobody knows of their other interests, history or how they spend their time. Part of what makes the NSA so disliked on the internet is that they are able to see all of someone’s history and preferences at once, violating their privacy and essentially seeing their true face.

Though people have their usernames and near absolute freedom to change and abandon it, many people stick with their username and become active members within their community. An individual builds a reputation similar to in real life. People can come to identify each other as friends even though they know very little about the other. There are times when people who met online meet in real life; which is often considered a big deal. There have even been marriages between people like these. If a person become well liked enough, they may end up publicly revealing their real name or making a career within that field.  There are still many people who still keep their real name and identity private, but still make personal friends and enemies online. This is all despite only communicating through a network of wires that spans the world known as the internet.