Post on Paragraph from the Reading

"The Internet people whom I have collected over the years are as much a part of my identity as my 4th grade teacher and afk best friends. They may know things about me that people whom I interact with daily may never know, because those secrets felt safer enclosed behind the glass of the screen, the distance between. Some of them knew me before I used my real name online. In the beginning, it felt powerful to be able to hide behind an alt where I could be treated like an adult if I wanted to."

This is the paragraph from the reading I chose to write about. This strikes me because it amazes me how much people have come to depend on online relationships. People have used the internet as a means to hide from the real world and not have to deal with real world problems. If people have an identity on the web, it can be totally different from their identity in the real world. This is harmful because if people become dependent on these electronic relationships, they will lack the skills it takes to survive in the real world. They won't have a backbone to deal with face-to-face issues. They may give the world a false sense of who they are. If an employer is trying to hire someone they only know from online interaction, they can never know exactly who they are hiring unless the meet the potential employee in person. 

People also tend to say things on the internet that they wouldn't say in person. As the paragraph says, people feel like they are able to "hide behind" their secrets. This has led to problems as well. Cyber bullying is a perfect example of this, as it is essentially bullying someone else behind the safety of the computer screen and the "space" it puts between the bullier and the bullied. People can be more daring; they feel more comfortable throwing around insults online when they would never say those things to someone in person.

People use it as an escape as well. The internet can provide an alternate world or virtual reality where they can play online games, creating a character and being able to talk to other people from anywhere in the world. People with so many virtual relationships miss out on real ones, which have a different level of substance. 

Though there are many advantages to online connections, it causes people who struggle with social interaction to feel safe and content in hiding in that insecurity, and so they don't get a chance to develop their social skills.