Depersonalization of moral agent in online environment

Františka Tomoriová Comenius University in Bratislava

frantiska.tomoriova@gmail.com

Introduction

• Massive expansion of using ICTs

– also ethical issues

• New fields emerged:

– computer ethics, information ethics

• Modern IE responds to new problems in online environment

Information ethics...

• Application of ethical theory to information (Buchanan and Henderson, 2009)

• Ethical aspects of information lifecycle

• Problem-oriented field focused on information behaviour of moral agent in communication (Capurro 2014)

Moral Agent

• Boundaries between human and non-human are blurring (Capurro 2015)

• Moral action causing moral good or moral evil

• Connection to responsibility

• User on the Internet is a human moral agent responsible for his actions

• Moral agent is responsible for his actions in online environment

• But he acts differently in online environment than in offline environment (anonymity)

• Differences in user's behaviour in online and offline environment refer to...

Depersonalization of MA

• „They might be an outrageous flirt online, while being painfully shy offline“ (Joinson 2007)

• Intelectual challenges, games, role-play

• Virtual environment – dream-like or fictional

• Separating online actions from identity

• „Whatever they say or do can't be directly linked to the rest of their lives“ (Suler 2004)

• „... Something about the distance still undermines our sense of direct presence“ (Dreyfus 2009)

• Wallace (2008) in the context of anonymity

– Deindividuation: anonymous existence of individual as a member of mass

Online environment:

• Non-materiality

• Virtual communication

• Anonymity – lack of the feeling of social control

• Construction of online identity

• Flaming, trolling, cyberstalking, cyberbullying, spamming...

RESPONSIBILITY

Visualization of depersonalization in online environment

Causes of depersonalization

To conclude

• In the context of information ethics

• Understanding of human information behavior

• Digital civility and information literacy

References

• Buchanan, Elizabeth A., Henderson, Kathrine A. (2009). Case Studies in Library and Information Science Ethics. United States of America: McFarland and Company, Inc., Publishers.

• Capurro, Rafael. (2014). Towards an Ontological Foundation of Information Ethics. (2016, December 10). Retrieved from http://www.capurro.de/oxford.html

• Capurro, Rafael. (2015). Toward a Comparative Theory of Agents. (2016, December 10). Retrieved from http://www.capurro.de/agents.html

• Joinson, A. (2007). Disinhibition and the Internet (J. Gackenbach, Ed.). USA: Elsevier Inc.

• Suler, J. (2004). The Online Disinhibition Effect. CyberPsychology and Behavior, 7(3), p. 321-325.

• Dreyfus, Hubert L. (2009). On the Internet: Thinking in Action. United Kingdom, London: Taylor & Francis Ltd.

• Wallace, K. (2008). Online Anonymity (H. T. Tavani, Ed.). United States of America: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.