Unknowingly you do. A lot.
People are people inside and outside this site. What we may suspect someone is like based on the statements and comments made within the rather narrow context of the
B2w forums does most often not reflect their personality in "real-life" situations. (Fortunately and hopefully
)
In defense of this site and community, and yet not every member thereof, and with a more general view on internet "social media" i tend to say it is more complex than that.
We as a society are participating in this sort of socializing (i.e. pseudo-anonymous internet communication) only a very short time and have to get used to its specialities and learn how to make use of it in a manner that is both advantageous for the single participant as well as best accepted by the whole community of users.
And by now we have already learned something and the change in this community that has taken place so far is evident, even though not complete. What we as a worldwide community had to and still have to learn is that there is a great diversity we somehow need to address and take care of. Also it is a patchwork of many differing conventions and laws.
In the beginning of this "new age" there had been no regulations of any sort, shape or form, other than what a service provider set forth by their own discretion, making a single user`s ability to criminal behavior possible and easy. Until now this has changed a lot! Today state officials and prosecutors are increasingly making use of the same technologies in an attempt to reduce crime and this with reasonably good success. Also multilateral agreements are set forth to accomplish this goal in international collaboration, although with natural limits, e.g. differences between state laws.
A result of that can be seen even on this site. Take forum rule #7 as an examle which states: "All people seen in any photo or video must be AND appear to be at least 21 years old." Although "legal age" and the "age of consent" are defined differently depending on the laws of one`s country or state, 21 seems to be the "greatest common factor". And both site members and moderators take care of the implementation of this rule by not posting inappropriate content, reporting violations or banning a violator, even before legal prosecutions (need to) take place.
With incidents becoming public of leaking of "problematic" material, may it be of national security, industrial or individual/personal interest, awareness of the importance of data protection is now on the rise. my personal opinion is that this will also change the way we as individuals will become to interact on web platforms (including
B2w) in the long run. Having this said,
there is hope!
i use to compare the state of societal development in respect with "online media" with the human development state of puberty or the early adult years. Just like young people have not yet come to grow into human interaction including sexuality, society has not come to grow into communication with "modern" information technologies included. Just like a college student is prone to experiment with formerly unknown situations and persons out of curiosity, the internet community (or, better put, its single users) are prone to experiment with media, the type of sites they are visiting, or the comments they post. And yes, sometimes by pretending to be what they`re not.
But in the course of maturing we will see and learn from experience that being genuine/authentic is how we can have the most advantageous experience for ourselves and less annoyance for our fellow users, which in turn will lead to a better acceptance of the individual person and more joyful and vivid platforms/sites to visit. We are just not there already. :|