Feeling Hot

In C. Hamelink's, "The Ethics of the Internet : Can We Cope With Lies and Deceit on The Net?" mention is made of what's known as "flaming". This is something that is all too common on the internet. In fact, the internet has made such a thing much easier to do and virtually removed the consequences of verbal abuse. "The greater the distance to potential victims, the more readily will people inflict harm that they would refrain from in face-to-face situations." (Hamelink, 2006). The terms "keyboard warrior" and "internet tough guy" are thrown around in excess these days, and for good reason too.

It seems, accoring to Hamelink, that without the physical barriers of face-to-face interaction, people are significantly more open as to what they are saying. Is this immoral? Even if there is an engagement between two people and it is online, isn't it still an engagement?. Two real people are still talking to each other who both have real feelings. In some cases, even people who would not normally even dream of being rude to somebody in person can turn to the dark side online. "...it’s astonishing how many people who are perfectly Polite in everyday life seem to forget their manners in their e-mail" (Rinaldi, 1997)

When it comes down to it, everyone should just try their hardest to be polite, no matter what the situation. There should not be serperate standards for different situations. When having real interactions with people, even on the internet, real etiquette should be used.

References

Hamelink, C. (2006). The Ethics of the Internet: Can we cope with Lies and Deceit on the Net? In Ideologies of the Internet, K. Sarikakis & Daya Thussu, pp. 115-130. New Jersey: Hampton Press.
 
(Accessed March 28, 2011)

Rinaldi, A.(n.d.). http://www.fau.edulrinaldi/net/ten html

(Accessed March 28, 2011)

The Internet - An Escape From the Self?

Online mediums such as Social Networking Sites (SNS) provide users with an opportunity to create a virtual counterpart of themselves which may or may not be an accurate representation of them in the real world.

"Online, users can claim to be whoever they wish. Like actors playing a role, they can deliberately choose to put forth identity cues or claims of self that can closely resemble or wildly differ from reality." (Pearson 2009)

 This fact is part of the appeal of the online identity. If you have certain traits that may be considered to be embarrassing, they can easily be covered up or not even mentioned at all. It is also quite easy to make outlandish and untrue statements about yourself, after all, who are your online "friends" to question you?

"Other claims in the profile may be untrue, yet unquestioned by friends and colleagues, who may simply assume this is an aspect of their acquaintance about which they do not know." (Donath & Boyd 2004)

The online identity is quickly becoming a sizable branch of the human identity. Will it eventually take over? Will our online identities soon be the only identities we have?

References

Pearson, E. (2009). All the World Wide Web's a Stage: The Performance of Identity in Online Social Networks. First Monday, Volume 14, Number 3.
http://firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/2162/2127 (Accessed March 14, 2011)

Donath, J., & Boyd, D. (2004). Public displays of connection. BT Technology Journal. Volume 22 (4): 75.
http://www.danah.org/papers/PublicDisplays.pdf. (Accessed March 14, 2011).