Politeness on the web
words
What John Gabriel said about video games applies to Tumblr too, albeit to a lesser extent. Hurtful comments posted on a blog in deliberate view of their target and tirades of obscenity on XBox Live may seem worlds apart, but they both have their root in the same aspect of social interaction on the web: anonymity.
If you play an online shooter you are effectively dumped into a new voice-chat room, occupied by ten to twenty total strangers, every quarter of an hour. Players are almost always too distracted by playing the game to pay much attention to who says what, and if they are offended enough by someone to take note of the offender there is usually little to nothing they can do to admonish them, even in the short term. This high degree of anonymity affords people the opportunity to experience the thrill of breaking societal norms about polite language without exposing themselves to any loss in social status.
Tumblr has a lesser degree of anonymity, and a mostly different user demographic, but don’t for a minute think that there aren’t people calling each other faggots here (I checked, there are). I myself wouldn’t write a post insulting someone who I knew would read it unless I was calling them out or making a joke, but there are a lot of people for whom the opportunity to take a dig at someone, without having to hear others tutting at their rudeness or see the hurt expression on their victim’s face, is too good to pass up. There is a certain calculated nastiness required to criticize someone to their face whilst acting as if they are not present, and the web allows those who would never be bold enough to do such a thing to pretend that they are.
