“Every man has a right to utter what he thinks truth, and every other man has a right to knock him down for it,” said Samuel Johnson, a prominent 18th century British writer and dictionarian. Johnson could not conceive how fitting his succinct appraisal of the concept of free speech and its inherent consequences would remain nearly three centuries after his death. Yet here we are, when the quip still applies even as much of our communication—with each other, with political and societal leaders, with corporations—has moved into the virtual realm. Maybe even more so.
You may have the right to say what you want in a tweet or a Facebook post (within reason; although incitement of violence is especially dicult to prove), but know that doing so could seriously irk others. Ironically, the very impersonal nature of internet-facilitated speech often results in people taking that speech much more personally.
“When we’re online, it’s really easy to say things that we wouldn’t say in a face-to-face setting. Social media is like alcohol in terms of it being a social lubricant,” says Stephanie Tikkanen, an adjunct lecturer in SCU’s Department of Communication who studies the growing role of new media in interpersonal relationships. “You might say something more cruel or you might say something that’s more vulnerable.”
There’s also context collapse, which really muddies the waters of online interactions. Imagine you’re throwing a dinner party, and you invite a coworker, your cousin, your college roommate, and your dentist. Not only will you struggle to find conversation topics that appeal to everyone, you’ll also be performing an internal juggling act of different facets of your personality—your professional mode, your familial mode, etc. “Which ‘you’ are you going to present?” Tikkanen asks. “That’s kind of how Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are.” Everyone—friends, friends of friends, family, and strangers alike—is at the same table.