Internet as Booze

It’s a perennial subject since I can remember: Why are people far more rude on the Net than in real person?

I was chatting with my friend David about it on Facebook, where we all know things can get really silly. For example, I’ve been pestered just a little on FB for keeping a conversation with David and his friends. How could a professing Christian hang out with religious pagans? Frankly, their civility comes as a respite from the petty herd mentality of some folks who claim to follow Jesus.

Others have noted that people in their cars will do things far more outrageous than they would without the artificial environment of the vehicle, and suggest there is something similar going on when people get online. So much is obviously true, in the sense that people tend to act differently when you create an artificial environment. It’s an awareness issue. When the atmosphere is different, you act differently.

Most humans are cowards. It’s not nice to say, but manifestly true. On top of that, most people live in an artificial environment already. For them, the every day life of society is itself not really home. Some significant element of their sense of being is in another world. It’s the same reason so many people are convinced TV and movies are reality. They don’t realize Sex and the City is pure mythology, a total lie. They look in the mirror and insist that was real; what they see around them is some violation of “reality.” They still have to deal with reality, and some do so quite poorly, but their behavior is constrained by an awareness that things can get painful quickly. This makes them hesitant to express things that would draw unpleasant attention to themselves. Reality bites.

But in your car, there is a sense the rules of the road and the consequences for the equivalent of punching people out are simply far higher than the simple physical act itself. Thus, you depend on the reluctance of others to actually smash their vehicle into yours and you can act quite the fool. Too many folks are fools anyway, but out on the streets, the consequences of folly are different in their perceptions. It’s the same with the Net. The rules prevent people thrashing you, for the most part, so you’ll do the most audacious things you’d never do in meat space.

That is, unless you are pretty solid and integrated personally. Think of your average person, someone with no real medical issues with beverage alcohol. Give them a few drinks and their behavior changes a bit. They forget the real consequences of life and act a fool. Then give the same libation to someone who isn’t such a fool. Their personality and social behavior changes little. Their mood might change, but the things they’ll do under the influence won’t seem too irresponsible. Booze exposes neuroses; if yours are minimal, alcohol won’t make you act stupid.

There aren’t many like that. Far too many people are nursing private neuroses and other wounds they barely manage. People who work at teasing out their personal moral issues tend to handle inebriation rather well, as they do driving and Facebook. Obviously, I’m telling you that most of my fellow professing Christians are pretty messed up. Most of them will avoid alcohol in the first place, but get them on the Net and they act so incredibly intemperate that I’m embarrassed to be listed as their friend. David (linked on the right in my blogroll as “DG Mattichak, Jr.”) and his friends face that same idiocy from their fellow pagans at times, so it’s not as if any place is really safe. However, when you make friends with one sane person, you find they shy away from the mass of idiots, so their friends aren’t so difficult. Frankly, I consider such people a blessing from God, regardless what they believe or don’t.

People act like the Internet is booze.