The Effects of Web Anonymity
There’s a reason the default profile picture on sites like Facebook and YouTube are so plain; it’s because it could represent anybody. Being anonymous online is usually extremely easy as most sites don’t require you to identify yourself or give personal details and this is great for maintaining your privacy. However, when no-one knows who you are it can seem like your actions have no consequences and this is what leads to the ‘online disinhibition effect’.
Disinhibition is usually associated with drunkenness and how alcohol can cause people to lose their inhibitions which tell them how and how not to behave — resulting in people doing things that they would normally consider embarrassing, disgusting or unacceptable. The phenomenon of online disinhibition is quite similar and occurs when what a person commenting online starts to say and do things that they would never normally do. Psychologist John Suler is the man who created the term and he said that one of the main causes is how easy it has become to act anonymously.
The internet is quite unique in that it seems to have its own culture which isn’t really a culture at all. Throughout our lives we experience socialisation where we are taught the norms and values of our society; the fundamentals of right and wrong. The basic principle is that if someone does something wrong or acts in a way they’re not supposed to then everyone else judges them negatively and people conform to the values of their society to avoid this judgement and possible humiliation; but if people don’t want to conform to these ideas then the internet can be a great solution for them — they can do and say what they want without anyone to judge them for it. The dictionary definition for a culture is “the ideas, customs, and social behaviour of a particular people or society” but these ideas, customs and social behaviour patterns are only used by large groups of people because of the pressure they feel to do so. If this pressure is removed then people won’t feel any need to be like everyone else as there is no reason to so the ‘informal laws of society’ cease to exist. At this point, a sociologist might start to question if the internet really does have its own culture as a culture needs norms and values and these can start to fade when disinhibition occurs — people start to disregard what socialisation taught them and start to act in ways that they normally wouldn’t even consider. As with most things, this can be both good and bad. It gives people the opportunity to have something closer to complete freedom and express themselves without having to worry about what other people think. However the bad side of anonymity online is a lot more disturbing.
Most people have at least heard of cyber bullying and some of the more serious cases have been made into examples. Campaigns to stop cyber bullying often provide stories of young people being driven to the point of suicide by the things that they were sent online. The people who sent these comments probably regret doing so after they experience the consequences of their actions but how do things get so dire in the first place?
In 2012 a girl called Amanda Todd uploaded a video to Youtube where she told the story of how she had been bullied online and later that year she committed suicide. The video provoked many people to become sympathetic and try to encourage others to do more to stop bullying. However, some decided to post comments that were less pleasant — saying that her death was a good thing and that she deserved it. Despite knowing what the video was and what happened to Amanda, these people still thought that these comments were not only appropriate but worth sharing with the rest of the world. This is one of the worst cases of how anonymity on the web can affect people’s inhibitions yet it happens all the time all over the internet, allowing people to say and do things that they only do to make people angry or upset — ‘hate comments’ are common online and ‘trolls’ only post them to make people angry or upset and in many cases both. And what’s to stop them? The chances are that if you walk up to someone and start telling throwing insults and making threats, you can be pretty sure that there might be some painful repercussions; although I suppose it depends on the your target. These things don’t concern hate commenters as they’re many miles away sitting at a computer and feeling very pleased with themselves … well probably — there’s no way of knowing. And that’s the problem; it doesn’t matter what those comments cause us to think about those people because we don’t know who they are and they know that — you might see them in the street and have no clue that it’s them.
But wait. Before you decide that the concept of being anonymous was some idea from the devil and go and tell everyone you see your name, age and address, consider that maybe the negative effects of web anonymity are a necessary evil. After all, the idea didn’t come from the devil and it’s there for a reason. Being anonymous protects you from people who genuinely aren’t very nice — both behind a computer screen and more importantly: without one. If anonymity wasn’t possible then the internet wouldn’t be what it is today and despite what you might think of it, it is still one of the major pillars that holds up modern society and it’s not all bad. No-one can deny that the way it develops is having a huge effect on society; it’s up to you to decide whether that effect is good or bad.
