- Joined
- Mar 10, 2013
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Personally, the internet does change peoples' personalities with contact, but it depends on the person and the interaction.
In my experience, people behave much worse on the internet than they do in real life. It's the Online Disinhibition Effect, where people who are masked by the internet's anonymity will abandon social rules or moral inhibitions based on the fact that the can get away with it online. In a world that shuns being a jerk in real life, it gives closet jerks a place to act like the jerks they truly are.
But I've met trolls, creepers, and flamers IRL, and they behave much more sanely and politely once they are met in an environment with social order, restrictions, and known identities. They're often people you don't expect, and sometimes they're quite similar to you in many ways (save for online interactions). They are unique characters, as unique as we all are, but they are still people. They just behave differently in a different environment than the rest of us; for good or ill, that's another topic.
But at the same time, I believe the internet changes people for the better as well. It might be a series of tubes, but it offers us communities, friends, opportunities, and responsibilities that are no less real than the ones we have in real life; they're a lot nicer when the person they're talking with can punch them in the balls at any time. During my 10 years of community management, I feel that I've honed a number of skills and undertaken several large projects that I would not have in real life, and I've grown because of it. The reason I believe in forgiveness policies on this network for past trouble-makers is because I know that people can change for the better with the right circumstances, and that those people are not likely to squander a second chance.
People act like the internet is somehow a lesser medium than real life for friendships and work. But based on my experience, that is simply not true. The internet is just a different medium, but it is still very real.
In my experience, people behave much worse on the internet than they do in real life. It's the Online Disinhibition Effect, where people who are masked by the internet's anonymity will abandon social rules or moral inhibitions based on the fact that the can get away with it online. In a world that shuns being a jerk in real life, it gives closet jerks a place to act like the jerks they truly are.
But I've met trolls, creepers, and flamers IRL, and they behave much more sanely and politely once they are met in an environment with social order, restrictions, and known identities. They're often people you don't expect, and sometimes they're quite similar to you in many ways (save for online interactions). They are unique characters, as unique as we all are, but they are still people. They just behave differently in a different environment than the rest of us; for good or ill, that's another topic.
But at the same time, I believe the internet changes people for the better as well. It might be a series of tubes, but it offers us communities, friends, opportunities, and responsibilities that are no less real than the ones we have in real life; they're a lot nicer when the person they're talking with can punch them in the balls at any time. During my 10 years of community management, I feel that I've honed a number of skills and undertaken several large projects that I would not have in real life, and I've grown because of it. The reason I believe in forgiveness policies on this network for past trouble-makers is because I know that people can change for the better with the right circumstances, and that those people are not likely to squander a second chance.
People act like the internet is somehow a lesser medium than real life for friendships and work. But based on my experience, that is simply not true. The internet is just a different medium, but it is still very real.
