Just found this... it's absolutely fascinating... and I think, rings true in many ways.

http://www.rider.edu/suler/psycyber/disinhibit.html

Edit: In fact the entire site is fascinating.. I'm wasting loads of time having a browse.

An interesting read indeed.

How depressing.

aye, I like disappearing into another world where I can spill out my guts to a complete stranger

As nice as it sounds, I have strong doubts about that site. By doubts I mean, the same way that "atrology charts" might seem earily accurate. But then again maybe its just because I knew about this stuff from examining myself years before 'internet addiction' was nationally recognized. (I remember once going to a doctor asking how to cure internet addiction and he thought I was joking)

Mainly, because they do not compare the internet with the old letter writting pre the industrial revolution. (where you could be anonymous, and often talk to people you've never met... or the whole pen pal thing even into the 1980s)

There is also no comparison with books. (i.e. projecting voices and images to text, and "merging minds" especially when reading non-fiction. The merging of minds is often used to explain to others why some people enjoy reading non-fiction, for example)

One thing I have found intersting about the forums that the page also doesn't seem to discuss, is that while we can take weeks to respond to a post, I also find myself spending hours *waiting* for a responce to one of my posts. An eager anticipation that can often make me imobile and piss off my fiance. In the times of letter writing, this sometimes happened with importnat news, but never over banal things.

The psychological mechanisms discussed on that site are pretty clear cut from literature. I imagine you could find most of them in a psychology 101 text book.

In my mind, people who have not been deeply invovled with pyschology may find those issues to be unique to the internet, which I don't think they are at all.

(for example, in the gender-switching article.. they list about 5 explanations dealing with 'experimentation' and one explanation dealing with 'having an edge'.. And the article focuses on experimentation.. obviously because its more much interesting and thought provoking... however, I wonder if the majority of 'gender-switches' is actually done 'to get noticed, or to advance in the game faster' or not. In my mind, the article seems to make it sound like that is the minority instead of the majority.

very interesting read, thanks aiakon.

http://www.rider.edu/suler/psycyber/blackhole.html

next time you send a tell to someone and they dont respond, how do you feel?

I think that's fascinating.

Actually, the most interesting part to me was the bit about revealing your "true self," especially having had the chance to meet two people now from the internet.

And Bali, xD...that's how I feel with unanswered IMs. Tells not so much.

I've pondered such things about the internet myself. I personally am very different in real life then what I show online. Games such as this are a psychological study gold mine, with the game, forums, and IRC. Its always interested me to see how ingame hostilities would often carry to out of game conversations even though I'm sure that the people who seem to hate each other's guts would get along just fine if they had met out of the game. Such ideas are interesting to ponder, I know I've passed some class hours considering them myself. It would be interesting to know some of the more notable people in the game in real life, and see what they are like away from the protection of the computer.

Well, in internet you have a chance to show abilities that probably in real life you cannot. I've meet GM and City Leaders who could be good team leaders in RL, but probably won't never be allowed to due to their circunstances, and very mature people who rl are 15 years old and thus nobody expects or believes they're mature.

Personally, I am more fun in a game because when I play I am in a good mood, if I am in a bad mood or sad I am not near the computer, or I am ignoring people. Also, I somehow don't laugh in the middle of telling jokes

Nooooo! Where did this fantastic piece go? I wanted to show someone in.





























*NECRO*

Aha, I found it. The URL changed slightly.

The Online Disinhibition Effect.

From back when Narsrim used to post, lol

I remember this thread <3 Aiakon, especially this.