The common conception is that because the internet gives an illusion of annonymity, people let down their normal guard, and reveal things about themselves that they normally wouldn’t.
And I think it’s a fine theory, with a fair bit of supporting data.
But in some communities, there might be another reason.
Everyone knows that conversing with people through text alone looses all body language, and most of the ‘tone’ information that makes up 70-80% of what/how we communicate. Whether people know the statistic, or just know it on a subconscious way, I think they respond to it by sharing MORE information than they normally would… in a way to let people know where they are coming from, so they’ll understand more WITHOUT the other data.
More musings.
No body language?!?!?!
What the heck are … and ??? and !!! and ?!?! and
and :p and >:( and lol and …… well, you get the picture (bah dum dum, ching!)
But, knowing what you’re talking about, I think you’re right. The two of us are kind of exceptional in that (a) you know me and real life which allows you to (b) generally infer from my text (word, emoticons, punctuation, etc) my body language as well.