When Lines Blur

Some people are lonely, some are frustrated, some unhappy and some have psychological disorders like seeking attention.

When such people get a platform where they can be anonymous, they abuse it.

They lie, they cheat others into believing something. Probably an image of themselves which they want to create in their real life and they can’t.

It can be very difficult to keep up that image because sometimes people do slip up, leave clues unknowingly. They think other can’t see, but they can.

Some pretend to be younger, some pretend to belong to the opposite sex.

And yet others, they outright pretend to be some one else, taking on an identity and trying to fool others.

Twice on this blog forum, such incidents have happened, where these self confidence lacking individuals have been caught and have tendered apology.

For some it is a game about identity deception, albeit one that is played without the consent of most of the players. The person attempts to pass as a legitimate participant, sharing the group's common interests and concerns.

But the success rate is not considered to be high in such cases as identity cues give away their game.

Obviously they should seek some kind of professional help.

An MIT Media Lab research adds- compared to the physical world, it is relatively easy to pass as someone else online since there are relatively few identity cues.

It further goes on to add that its even more surprising how unsuccessful such crude imitations can be.

In a ToI article, sociologist Neha Khanna says people are not only taking up online identities, they are changing their real ones too.

She further says, "This is the age where everybody wants to be a star, be saleable. If others react favourably online to a certain trait, they change their identity at a moment's notice.

The 'real you' is lost in the race to be 'popular you'. But this doesn't happen in real life interaction. So, is it time to press the alarm bells? "

Definitely. Normality is the ability to deal with all aspects of real life. Not choosing your space and blanking out the real," adds psychologist Samir Parikh.

Is anyone paying heed?

P.S : This post is inspired by SS ki current post.

Originally posted on Friday, November 10, 2006 6:09 PM