Security by Anonymity
Written on Thursday, April 13, 2006 by Rohan Koshy
What is it about the internet that makes us lose inhibitions and open up to people that we don’t know and may have never met. I ponder this question as i form online relationships (read friends) with people on a more regular basis. The blanket security that the anonymity of the internet provides us to open so much more easily is very intriguing.
I've told things to my online friends that i have never told my other friends in such a short time of knowing them. I think the success of online relationships really lies in one thing:-Words. The fact is people can express much, much more coherently when they write than when they speak. It’s just easier to express what you really feel. I know it’s sounds like a paradox because there’s no tone or inflexion when you write but I feel people always write with more thought than they speak…harsh words come out less... and thoughts come out better than when u speak. It’s funny that because it takes so much time to type you actually think about what you’re gonna say. (Or type)
Somehow with the advent of voice chat and later video chat I think this online openness will diminish. I think that because you cant see or hear the person you basically judge them by what they actually say (type) which in a funny way may be what matters. Online relationships I feel will start with only regular chat and only then move to voice and video.
Although I digressed a lot from the topic at hand back there I feel it really could make a difference to online relationships. But I will never cease to be amazed as how the blanket of anonymity continues to allow people to make friends faster than ever before.
Maybe it’s because most of the time the person your talking to cant really use this information for any good and maybe most importantly they’re there because they only want to do one thing:-Talk. And nothing else. They’re not stuck in traffic; they’re not talking to you while they’re on their way to meet someone else, they’re not eating and talking!!.
To conclude it’s just cool how all the boundaries are gone and how you can make often better friends in cyberspace than in 3 dimensional space
Absolutely true... People generally judge others at their first sight from their appearances, but they dont judge when they dont see a person.... and there by speak out without any inhibitions!!!
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@vivek
so that is a good thing or a bad one.. opening up to someone with the handicap of not being able to judge the non-verbal (or even verbal) gestures.. sounds scary come to think of it..
i actually think that people tend to put up a false image online.. they try to be what they always wanted to be.In reality a person can be judged much easily.. most things you can make out from the behaviour, the way one talks and the body language.. writings can only tell you how good a writer one is..but can never tall who what lies beneath!
@emptyhour
i pretty much agree with that! people will always try and put forth an image they would 'want to be' when text-chatting online... and as far as im concerned, i would like to judge the person from 'what he is' rather than 'what he would have loved to be'..