Monsters, Masks, And Machines

Abstract

Our identities become flexible in response to the new modalities of the internet and social media. Given the mask of anonymity, people's digital personas are subject to a sort of malleability that is otherwise impossible to replicate in the "real world." The digital mask -- albeit non-tangible, fills a similar role that actual masks have had for centuries, with greater-reaching impacts and consequences given the global connectivity the internet has provided. This ancient practice of masking has not disappeared but merely evolved over centuries, with the internet simply being the latest tool with which people are able to "mask" and depart from their real-world identities. What happens when the basest, most monstrous sides of humanity become enabled by the mask of this anonymity?