The internet tends to reflect some of our personas. However, to some extent, there's more to this believability. I tend to think that people are completely different from what they are online. Some others are more than what they seem, they're probably condescending, jealous, hateful, and narcissistic as well.
But their excesses seem to be curtailed online, so they won't be deemed as toxic or hateful, while some others are people who probably gets validation, worshipped or seen as overlords because of some cyber exploits they seem to have done, but they're probably just regular people who would need to stand in a queue to get ice cream, in a convenient store.
In reality
There are people who we might not truly like, maybe their Facebook posts, seems to pass the wrong message, or we watch their WhatsApp status and they have this opinionated view that doesn't seem to sit well with us while educating or informing them correctly might be the right thing to do, sometimes.
we choose not to, and the reason is that we respect their freedom of expression, more than the mental infringement which they seem to cause us. Decency and tolerance are one of the biggest values of decent people online, the former (decency) is why we cannot tell people they're wrong or correct them about certain beliefs or ideologies they hold.
Some of these people are wired so differently, they can turn a harmless approach into the intent of war
This is one of the reasons why we cannot reason with people online. Some people consider those with a different mindset their enemy and any friendly approach with the intent of slightly influencing them differently is a prick on their ego and they deem it to be a play on their intelligence.
One of the reasons why this is so is self-aggrandizement. There are people who have achieved massive success in real life, while this is obvious for their acquaintances and friends in real life, this isn't so for people online. The only way they can do this is to show people that they've been successful.
Pseudo-anonymous is a online thing
One of the things the internet do to people is to create equity and sameness because the pseudo-anonymous entities we present are just effigies of us, they don't directly give our accomplishments in real life off to others.
However, some people rise above this rubrics of sameness to show they're on a different level, and one of the ways they do so, is to constantly create circumstances where they need to tell people of their successes in real life, so they can command that respect they command offline in online spaces as well. Everyone carves different online entities for different things.
Elevated Or Suppressed?
people don't completely change who they are, we're mostly an elevated or a suppressed version of who we truly are, because of the difference in the environment. Online spaces are protective, so there are people who display a raw version of who they are because they feel this is the only place they can be themselves without reprisal, and even if there would be a reprisal, provided it wouldn't affect their real-time identities, then they're fine with this.
Most of the arguments I've seen online are because of misunderstandings where two people claim to be right and not of them are willing to sheathe their swords. It's hard to see people walk away even when they're wrong.
Perception can be overestimated Or Underestimated
One thing I've come to find out is that people are actually different than what we perceive them to be or way worse than they are, most of the time, we need to truly know people to really know who they are. Some of the people I know online, I developed different beliefs about them than I met them physically.
The fact that my mindset changed doesn't mean it did so on a positive note, sometimes, there are people we need to meet to confirm our fears or changed our beliefs towards them. This isn't the same with everyone, some people are narcissistic, and meeting them in real life will only confirm our fears. Nevertheless, this doesn't mean that no one isn't deserved of the benefit of doubt.
Interested in some more of my works?
Reviewing A $400 Samsung Galaxy A72 (photos Included)
Hive's Scalability & The Compromise Of Commitments
Money: The Consequences Of Making The Right & Wrong Decisions
The Nigerian Economy: Monopolizing Incompetence
The Experiential Process of Understanding Money
A Case Of Theft On Hive: Here's Why Some People Choose Scam.
