Blogging

Anonymusing

We were working on our salad when he seemed to change the subject and asked, as we all sometimes do, about the role of moral authority in restraining a person from doing wrong. That is, how much do people rely on the physical proximity of others to influence their ethical behavior? We agreed that if some sense of collective vigilance influences our behavior, whether it be financial or physical — some awareness of physical community that makes us do right or wrong — then the sense of anonymity accompanying most Internet-based transactions can skew our behavior to a potentially dangerous point. (William H. Davidow, Overconnected: The Promise and Threat of the Internet)

computer-room-2-1237883-mI remember this question about the bodylessness of online discussion coming up even in the early nineties, when I was in graduate school. In one of my classes, we would skip meeting together in the classroom once in awhile and answer a discussion question via computer instead. Back then it was on mainframe computers located at certain points on the University campus. The computer changed the dynamics of the discussion because all of the inhibitions of being physically in a room together were absent. Quiet folks became dominant, sometimes even profane, when reduced to keyboard-only mode. It was a revelation.

I haven’t ever pursued this question about moral authority, but it’s occurred to me in one form or another at different times. Something I’ve noticed about law-abiding folks is that they tend to want to be less anonymous online. When I started blogging, it was under the totally anonymous nom de plume “writer2b.” But eventually I revealed my name, a trend I’ve noticed in other bloggers as well. No one made us do it; we felt compelled, perhaps by a sense of responsibility, perhaps by a desire to realize more fully the feeling of online connection with others. I think it does put constraints on what one is willing to reveal, and it raises the standard in terms of civil discourse.

But it’s still not as strong a regulator as physical proximity to others. This can have its liabilities, but it can create some unique opportunities too.  Maybe that’s why many of us feel that some of our blog friends know us differently or better than our real-world friends. We are able to develop and present our thoughts in writing more completely than we have either the time or the opportunity to do in person with others. Anyone patient and gracious enough to read them has a better idea of where we’re coming from than those we know in our all-too-rushed and infrequent offline conversations.