I was mindlessly scrolling on Instagram and found myself flicking through the @ualmemes story where they had asked for the top three things people had learnt at UAL. Obviously all the submissions were anonymous but I found these two answers interesting in the context of my project.

It made me curious as to whether these two respondents would say the same things if they were asked this question face to face. There is an element of comfort in anonymity online, and according to a paper written by Kimberly M. Christopherson, “Individuals can use their anonymity to almost become a different person without fear of being identified and negatively evaluated by those they know. This factor may lead to an extreme sense of freedom for the individual and allow him or her to engage in behaviors typically disapproved of by others without fear of the consequences that may ensue as a result.”

Christopherson, K.M. (2007). The positive and negative implications of anonymity in Internet social interactions: ‘On the Internet, Nobody Knows You’re a Dog’. Computers in Human Behavior, 23(6), pp.3038–3056. doi:10.1016/j.chb.2006.09.001.

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