The anonymity of the internet allows for greater freedom of expression, but it also enables some users to become more aggressive and mean-spirited. Trolls are a common problem in online communities, and anonymity can fuel contentious discussions. The lack of consequences may tempt some users to express their darker sides.
The Internet community provides users with a variety of outlets to express their personal opinions and thoughts, from chat rooms to message boards to feedback forms. Many of these interactive web pages encourage or even require participants to remain anonymous or create alternate identities. The anonymity of the Internet can provide a level of privacy for users in the real world, but it can also allow certain participants to become much more aggressive or mean-spirited than they would be without the promise of anonymity. Many people believe that because the person cannot be easily identified, an anonymous commenter feels free to be much meaner than he otherwise would be.
There is no doubt that the anonymity of the Internet has allowed some users to express their opinions with others with greater security or without the usual social filters found in the offline world. That same anonymity can encourage others to disregard etiquette and post harmful or deliberately inflammatory messages for the sole purpose of hurting other posters or chat room participants. These petty or blatantly abusive Internet users are often known as trolls in the Web community, and Web site moderators spend much of their time online deleting abusive posts and suspending the accounts of those who leave them.
A trolling-like phenomenon can involve anonymous posters getting involved in contentious or contentious discussions. The original topic of discussion is often replaced by personal insults, lewd replies, and ad hominem attacks. These so-called “fire wars” or “flames” could probably be fueled in large part by the anonymity of the experience, since an equally heated discussion in real life between identifiable people would most likely not reach that level without outside intervention. For most people, it’s much easier to take out anger or frustration on an anonymous chat room troll than it is to express the same feelings on a controversial real-world colleague.
What keeps many people from expressing intense emotions like anger and frustration in real life is the fact that they are known entities in a surprisingly small world. The anonymity of the internet essentially levels the playing field for all participants, which may allow some users to express the darker sides of their personalities in ways that would be unthinkable in real life. The ability to send angry or mean thoughts without tangible consequences may prove too tempting for some people. While it could be argued that anonymity does not necessarily promote meanness or anger, it does allow users with the capacity for strong emotions to express them more easily and with less regard for the consequences of their actions.
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