The Online Disinhibition Effect

(Not to be confused with The Completion Backwards Principle, of course.)

Via Dr. Helen, psychologist and blogger John Suler has an interesting take on why people act the way they do online–and why it’s often very, very different from how they’d act in person.

Think of some of the coarser language floating through the Blogosphere. Think most of those bloggers drop that many F-bombs whilst talking to their friends and relatives? No! Their conversation is slanted more towards using words such as whilst…