We as a culture continue to augment and supplement ourselves in significant ways. For every substantial addition, comes a myriad of micro adjustments to be made under the umbrella of the facilitating system. If the computer is an extension of the nervous system, social networks are an extension of personality and identity.
“In 1969, APS Fellow Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University dressed female students in lab coats, some plain with identity-concealing hoods, and some with name tags and no hoods. He told the students to give an electric shock to a confederate. The hooded participants were twice as likely to comply."
"Zimbardo’s study was a formative piece of a rich body of research showing a link between anonymity and abusive behavior. Scientists have found a tendency for many people to act rudely, aggressively, or illegally when their faces and names are hidden.”
What makes the common Twitter “burner-account” user want to continually prod and berate their community with such ease? Why do we create numerous Instagram identities to solicit what we have no inherent right to? Is it because we do not have to witness the real-time repercussions for ourselves? Would we act more accordingly if we were forced to look the person we were tearing down in the eye?
And the embodiment of disregard is all there will ever be for some, at least in this age of anonymity. Do we truly find it necessary to talk down on people we know nothing about? To threaten and belittle honest mistakes that we are guilty of achieving ourselves? In some instances we are supposed to be partners after all - the game of tearing each other down is not one of longevity.
“It’s very easy to take this shadowy image of this other person online and start using that to create this internal dialogue where you unleash all your stuff on this other person,”
"...the anonymity of computer-mediated communication (CMC) weakens our inclination to subscribe to social/societal norms, but only if our personal identity is more relevant than our social identity. In other words, the anonymous atmosphere of online social interactions may lower our need to maintain our social identity and status and allow for our personal identity (more so) and core beliefs and values to come to the surface without reluctance."
Cited Sources:
https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/who-is-that-the-study-of-anonymity-and-behavior
https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1472&context=etd
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Jean-Leon_Gerome_Pollice_Verso.jpg
Credits:
Created with images by TheDigitalArtist - "earth internet globalisation" • tookapic - "eye eyeball green" • thamuna - "human woman adult" • TheDigitalArtist - "earth internet globalisation"