is there any good reason to express ones inner uncensored person in cyberspace?
Well, there are different ways to look at that. From the poster's standpoint, it seems an excellent way to vent one's inhibited or repressed self (I agree with all you said about our masked 3-D lives). It is a way also to test out some of our partially thought-out ideas or positions, to see what reaction we get. And, as our moods do shift with the sands, we can vary our on-line persona as we feel like without creating the puzzlement that would ensue if we did that with our families.I think we do think of ourselves as performing to an audience, and bask in the reception we get, even enjoying boo's if we are in the mood to provoke.
It seems like we can do all these things without affecting our real lives, and without causing any harm.
But I think what started these ruminations is "harm" part.
That is what this controversy has been about, hasn't it? That some person living their real life right here, has been grievously harmed -- not alone by the supposed perpetrator, but as well by those who appeared not to give sufficient credibility to her pain and suffering which was playing out right before their eyes here in cyberspace.
As you point out, it is much more complex than it might seem.
On a personal level, I am doing some reevaluating about whether I want to continue very much longer doing this. I enjoy the repartee and the intellectual challenge of the debates. I have a very thick skin as to the insults that come along the way. But the accusations of contributing to harm -- not to alias-personas -- but to real people whom I don't even know -- is a different matter.
Up to now I have always felt that the differentiation of the real world from the cyberspace one was as clear to everyone else as it is to me. This is my first involvement in a prolonged "discussion" wherein eventually the one world bridged the other, and they became one in the same. And then it became deadly serious business.
To see that happening is not giving me good feelings.
Thanks for your nice comments. |
