Tulio and Beatrix left some comments on the Facebook thread:
Tulio: I think people can have sides of them they display online that you will not see in real life. I think people put in an effort to be more genteel when face to face that they do not do when they are behind a keyboard typing alone in their bedroom.
I’ve had explosive debates that online with people I know that ended up with hurt feelings. One such person I no longer even talk to. In person, we never got into arguments. But online, all the time.
I think we drop the persona we shield ourselves with when share our thoughts on Facebook or blogs. We are more our real selves. Sometimes I’ll have a certain impression of someone from meeting them, then see their Facebook posts and photos and that person ended being nothing like I thought they were.
Beatrix: I can think of 2 former friends who were rather quiet, meek, & introverted in person who turned into raging inappropriate assholes on FB.
Like they completely did not understand that FB is not the place to announce you’re thinking of leaving your spouse, badmouth friends, discuss your self induced financial problems, declare your closet alcoholism/drug abuse, reveal your most recent minor health problems (ie a case of ringworm, or a urinary tract infection), air your ignorant & bigoted religious & political views etc.
Anyway, there definitely seems to be some ‘disinhibition effect’ fostered by FB on some people. Not all, but some to an extreme. Luckily ‘defriending’ is much easier on FB than in real life.
PS- Those 2 introverts turned assholes were ‘educated professionals’ in their mid 40’s – not teens nor early 20’s where you would assume lack of maturity is probably the issue.
This is what is known as “Internet Asshole Syndrome.” The problem with the Net is that you can get away with being a complete prick without having to suffer any negative consequences from being such an asshole. Whereas in real life, if you acted like this, you would probably be getting your ass kicked real quick while a crowd looked on and cheered on the attacker.
In the piece, I wrote that Internet Asshole Syndrome aside, people’s personalities are the same online as they are in real life. I know this because I met a lot of folks online and then met them in meatspace, and of course they acted no different.
This argument was started by Internet haters who said that everyone on the Net was fake and not real, no romance, dating or sex could ever occur via the Net, and that most people on the Net were complete fakes who were adopting completely different personalities (in the holistic sense) online than they had in real life. My experience has been that this is not true.
You would think that introverts would liven up online and become the life of the party in the chatrooms as they are not under nearly as much scrutiny, but they as silent as ever. The most boring place on Earth is an Internet chat room full of introverts. You would think they all died after they came into the room. Literally nothing happens.
That said, Internet Asshole Syndrome is a very serious problem, and it is exacerbated by the fact that your haters often are posting under fake handles so you have absolutely no idea what their real names nor do you know anything about them. Which of course gives a lot of jerkoffs and lousy human beings even more impunity to be complete dickwads.