Internet communication

Recently, Ive been thinking a lot about how people communicate online, especially on Youtube. Just to get an idea of why I might be thinking about this, I chose one of the random "Videos being watched now" videos on the front page of the site, which happened to be this one. Here are the most recent comments. Take it away, MikefromMadrid. He wants to let us know that "negro's cant sing for shit". StusMauler feels the need to share too: "whore." chaosstarr butts in with "her boobs aint fake r they", and BadmanLiner shares "haha love it". I'm not going to go on, but there's plenty more on there. So, what makes a person comment on Youtube, and why say things that (I hope) they wouldnt say offline?

I've put it down to a social hierarchy effect. Online, you are completely anonymous. MikefromMadrid could easily be Steve from Portland, and BadmanLiner probably isnt a BadmanLiner at all. This anonymity allows complete freedom of speech. You can voice your views without fear of retribution in any form you want. This is partly how the video aspect of the site works anyway, but in comments it becomes more interesting. Everyone wants to be the alpha male in society, and online the idea changes. Say someone creates a video. One person loves the video, and assumes most other people do too, and posts "wow! i love this video" in order to relate to the video, and link themselves to it, hoping that someone will come along, love the video, read the comment, and have respect them. You probably don't think like this, and I don't think this is something people spent time thinking about. But the last time someone approached you about a film they enjoyed and you had already seen, I expect you wanted them to know that you had already seen it, and want to make their opinions change to reflect yours.

This effect can be observed with "leet" speak, a form of english that came about around the time that the Internet really started to hit the mainstream. The term itself originates from the word "elite", and was created mainly to keep the first major users of the technology as the 'rulers' of the Internet. It was used to exclude "newbies", using spellings and grammar not used anywhere else with the hope of it being clear that they were the elite. The form of language evolved as the Internet grew, and now simpler adaptions of it are commonly used online, as you can see from the examples at the start of the post. It is often used to shorten the time taken to type, from "are" to "r" or "you" to "u", and many of the more common misspellings or words have been accepted into general speak, often now in the real world as well - listen out for people saying "lol" or "noob" around town. The elitism of internet culture has again changed, and now sites such as SomethingAwful consider themselves, perhaps not deliberately, but nonetheless a more elite online society, looking down upon people who use "leet" speak or misspellings generally. Internet memes are also often used, which effectively excludes people from the site in the same way "leet" speak did. This is a good way to examine the alpha male effect in the Internet, and leads us back to the original point.