August 18, 2001

• Anonymity on the Internet
  
  Many people keep their identity masked on the Internet, and they are wise. In my case, many of the reasons I am out here on the Net -- to spread information and break down stereotypes about bipolar disorder and homelessness, to promote the creativity of my friends and encourage creativity in others, to network with people who are working on similar causes -- are better facilitated by my having a face and a name and a way to contact me, and by my being open about my current life and my history. I neither expect nor demand that of others. In most cases, having a thicker screen between you and the rest of the wildlife in the Net makes sense. This very very big Net catches some poisonous snakes and spiders and other creepy things.
  
  I have seen some good results of anonymity on the Net. Here you have the opportunity to open up and talk about things you'd be embarrassed to discuss among people who see you every day, to explore new aspects of yourself among people who don't have you typecast already and who can't stereotype you by how you look because they can't see you, to stumble through trying to put something into words for the first time... has everyone had that moment when you were trying to put a thought or feeling into words, saw all the blank faces of your friends around you, and stuffed it? Did you just shrug it off, or did you feel sick, or did you turn red and want to curl into a ball and roll behind the couch?
  
  There are lots of forums on the Net where you can keep talking until you get it out, and if you embarass yourself too much you can just move on to another forum.
  
  But I've seen some negative consequences of anonymity too.
  
  One of them is the Babble Reflex. If you come into the house, call out, and don't get an answer, what is your first reaction? Call out again, louder, right? If you are trying to explain something and your listener doesn't signal that he understands, don't you usually go on talking at more length? Now, why do you think so many people on the net, on Xanga logs for instance, go on and on and on... I think it's because they never get a signal that they've been heard. In Virtual, no one can see their reader's face.
  
  Another negative consequence of anonymity is the Donner Party Syndrome. You get out in a wilderness with a bunch of strangers and no witnesses, and some people give into temptations that are kept in check by social pressure back in the City.
  
  In the physical world, being spiteful and cruel usually has consequences. Depending on your social group, the consequences vary from being shot in the gut or having your head stove in, to not getting a promotion or being socially shunned.
  
  In Virtual, nobody can come down the electron tunnels with an aluminum baseball bat no matter what you say. Some people use this to be more open about views on religion, politics and other controversial subjects than they would dare to be at the bridge club. Some use it to vent rage, despair, lust or other emotions in safe ways that don't harm their daily lives and relations. Some others use it to indulge rage, spite, envy, lust, cruelty etc. in harmful ways, damaging others, because they can without serious consequences to themselves.
  
  There isn't much you can do about the people in the last category. In email lists and some discussion forums you can filter out their messages. They do the most damage on read-and-rate forums. I've seen it happen to others, and to myself.
  
  Understanding what is happening takes the sting out of it for me, usually. I've also tried to get as much fun out of such occurrences as I can by doing something I call "playing with the amoeba." I probably shoudn't do it -- I get the term from a comment one list-admin made to my sweetheart when he was persistently poking fun at a Troll, "Please, Wes, don't play with the amoeba!" But if I have to put up with something, I want to get some use out of it.
  
  I manage several lists myself, and I unashamedly censor such behavior. An honest exchange of differing opinions, even when it gets heated, is one thing. Sniping from the cover of Virtual is another.
  
  I don't know how to wrap this up. I wrote it to get my thoughts out, because I'm being pestered on one of those read-and-rate forums (fragx.com) by one such person. I'm not the only one pestered, either. I want to boil down what I just wrote out into a 200-word entry for fragx.
  
  Now, on a more positive front, I have to go get the StreetWrites troop ready for a performance at StreetLife gallery!
  
  
  
  
  
  

  • 3:33 pm
  • 3 Comments