The Social Dynamics of Anonymity

"One thing to keep in mind about social media: the internet mirrors and magnifies pre-existing dynamics."

Undeniably true, and, ultimately, not startling. When it comes to Facebook – as evidenced by the discussion we had in class this past Thursday – we rarely engage meaningfully with others outside of the group of people we interact with regularly. I also caught a glimpse of what Danah Boyd describes in the stratification that is reflected online by the Facebook and MySpace divide; I switched from a public middle school to a fairly wealthy private high school thanks to a scholarship, and it was only then that I became familiar with Facebook to begin with. This was thanks in part to Facebook's infancy, but even over the years, a far larger percentage of my schoolmates at my private school had Facebook accounts in place of MySpace accounts, whereas, while there were plenty of people popping up on Facebook, the amount of MySpace users remained substantial.

So what happens when we bring ourselves into anonymous spaces? Can our offline identities create stratification when they are simply not present? To answer this, I can only reflect on the limited experience that I have had with the site that has become the object of my cultural comparison report. The medium of the messageboard essentially presents transparency or anonymity to the degree you choose. There are members of the online community that are extremely open about their personal life and try to reflect themselves in as true a fashion online as they do offline; at the same time, there are members who put little effort into representing their offline identity. The community I'm examining is one that meets on the premise of discussing hip-hop music; as such, it's a predominantly black community and it's aware of this. This has created a cliché in the community – sometimes used in jest and sometimes used with sincerity – that excuses misinformed opinions as a byproduct of "being white." In this way, Boyd's acknowledgement of pre-existing dynamics is accurate. However, there are plenty of occasions where these dynamics are thrown out the window, simply because it's impossible to uncover the identity of the person you are engaging. There are situations where favor is given to the more knowledgeable person on a particular topic, with race or class or gender becoming irrelevant. I have even gotten into discussions with others on topics that are generally outside of the realm of things I often talk about offline simply because of the anonymity granted by the site. This freedom only occurs because I am truly outside of my socially constructed boundaries.

But how did I get outside of them? Well, I'm outside these boundaries only because the boundaries are dropped. In an environment that is at first anonymous and only reflects a true offline identity when the user populates the space with its own story, social stratification cannot occur without the subject creating their strata. When it comes to discussing music, this can be done without bringing much of a deeply personal perspective to the table, and an anonymous user can remain more or less anonymous. However, when the discussion starts to branch out into topics that require a perspective that can only result from a socially constructed experience, even without deliberately describing one's own identity, the reality of who we are can become apparent, and social stratification can occur. This was especially apparent when I began to venture outside of music or sport discussion and began engaging political or current event discussions; event the most anonymous members began to reveal their identities without deliberately attempting to do so.

This is definitely an idea that requires far more attention than I've given it. I assume that further examination of the messageboard dynamic would confirm my suspicions: it seems that in trivial or impersonal situations we can escape our pre-existing identities, but otherwise, we will always fall victim to the reality of existing social dynamics.