ABSTRACT
An often-quoted cartoon that was published in the New Yorker magazine shows a dog sitting at a computer and saying to another dog, ‘On the Internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.’ Morahan-Martin and Schumacher (2000) discussed this phenomenon in the context of problematic Internet use, suggesting that the ability to self-represent from the safety of the computer screen may be part of the compulsion to go online. The lack of face-to-face communication ensures some level of anonymity, which can lessen social risk and lower inhibitions. Turkle (1995) likened this to the ability to try out new ways of relating, new roles and new identities. Such new identities might include playing with changes in gender, age and race. On the Internet the ‘bandwidth’ of communication is relatively narrow, and the scope for controlling the presentation of self increases. ‘In cyberspace you have more control over how someone sees you. Everything begins with words. You are who you say you are. And you can make yourself sound really good’ (Horn 1998:294). These changes are not impossible in the offline world, but are potentially more difficult to sustain, and carry with them greater risk of discovery.
