Lack of Common Courtesy Online

Simple question. Why are people more likely to be assholes online? Even when people know their real names via social media, people just seem to be full on assholes anymore. What's the deal?

when you aren't actually in the same room as someone, there is no or at least a greatly reduced threat of some kind of physical confrontation or serious real life consequences.

so, the assholes of the world show their true colours online, mostly to deflect insecurities about themselves I imagine.

People get real brave when there's no chance of getting their teeth knocked out.

It's easier to forget you're talking to a human being.

And people act like that in real life too, as anyone who's ever worked in the service industry will probably tell you.

One word: Anonymity.

Why do they do this? I think because they want to feel above others by being an asshole. Or maybe they're just revealing a part of them they can't show on public because they afraid to be judged personally. Afterall, we tend to develop another personas on the internet.

This... idiots just hide behind the anonymity of the internet and act like tools most of the time.

99% of them would act completely different face to face.

Don't know don't care. I like the internet the way it is. It's more interesting.

Yes one of my friends is a keyboard warrior. Always getting banned on Facebook and Xbox. But in real life, he's very pleasant and actually one of the more quieter guys of our group.

It's impulsive. That's the argument one of the creators of the internet made and that is the argument I put forth earlier when people wanted anonymity gone as a cure for bad words online.

It has nothing to do with anonymity. It has everything to do with the type of communication. When typing comments you tend to type the first thing on your mind. Even I do that, except sometimes I do think about what I wrote in hindsight, and that is why I edit my posts 10+ times.

It's not because the people are assholes in most cases, it's about the type of communication. When you are on the phone your human nature will make you behave differently. You won't say what is on your mind without thinking about it. Well hopefully. Because the first things on our mind tend to be pretty nonsensical and negative. You can look at most short comments to see what our first impulsive thoughts are like.

It's this... I think road rage is because of this as well. Partly at least.

I think it's because we don't see our faces like in real life. But common courtesy in real life is not actually much better nowadays.

Don't know, I personally don't act any different than I do whether online or not. I certainly see quite a few assholes on Facebook, gamefaqs, youtube and other websites.
Then again on facebook and gamefaqs I've added quite a few to my ignore list for probably dumb reasons like being a grammar nazi or posting tl;dr in a message instead of just answering the topic question I mean they could've just not bother posting.

I never understood the use of "anymore" the way you are using it. I interpret it to be synonymous with "any longer" rather than what looks to be your use of "these days" so it sounds like you are saying:

"..people just seem to be full on assholes any longer" where you may have meant "..people just aren't nice anymore"

Don't interpret this as me being in an asshole in a thread about people being assholes. That is just a coincidence :)

I don't know if I would ever trust someone like that, knowing he was that kind of prick online. I would constantly wonder what he really wants to say to me/us, what he is hiding.

With that said, you could easily argue that everyone is like that, we all hold things back. Sometimes I wish I was like some of those folks on the spectrum that can't really keep secrets and are good at reading people, like "Oh you seem sad, is it because you were an asshole the other day?" :P

Anonymity breeds cowardice.