Hi
On Sun, 5 Mar 2000, Rick Adams wrote:
> As it happens, I'm doing my doctoral research on the emerging Internet
> culture (viewing the Internet as a distinct cultural group rather than as a
> sub-culture), and this type of behavior (together with many other variations
> from the norms and mores of other cultures) is an area I tend to focus on
> rather strongly. It's a rather fascinating phenomenon that (like road rage)
> represents a unique adaptation to technology.
Nothing that has been said so far (here, or elsewhere that I have
seen [without looking very hard]) indicates that there is
anything special about what happens on the net. With respect to
Mr. X, for example, how do we know that he does not act in
exactly the same way in his private dealings with people? And
how do we know that people who raised in public speculative
hypotheses about the origins of the behaviour (i.e., psychiatric
or neural disorder, being a jerk) don't do exactly the same thing
in their everyday lives. It would be interesting to know whether
there is solid evidence for differences in behaviour across
different media. The same thing is true for "road rage" of
course. Is there solid evidence that such acts of rage occur
with higher-than-expected frequency and to people who are
otherwise non-aggressive?
Best wishes
Jim
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James M. Clark (204) 786-9757
Department of Psychology (204) 774-4134 Fax
University of Winnipeg 4L05D
Winnipeg, Manitoba R3B 2E9 [EMAIL PROTECTED]
CANADA http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~clark
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