I recently finished reading We Are the Nerds, which is about the history of Reddit (the company) and its community. One of the interesting parts was about the moderator of a bunch of subreddits that were full of all kinds of borderline illegal and definitely illegal content (u/violentacrez, if you feel the need to Google for yourself).
If you're a long-time Reddit user, you probably already know this, but here goes: He was eventually exposed by a journalist. Surprisingly, he is actually a pretty normal middle-aged man. He worked as a programmer (and was immediately fired when the news aired). He has a disabled wife for whom he is the sole financial support. If I remember correctly, he has adult children, who were aware of what he did on Reddit and had usernames that referenced their relationship with him. Apparently, he used his time on Reddit as a way to relieve stress, or something like that.
I'm not entirely certain what motivates people to act like that online when they're relatively normal offline, but it seems to be a somewhat common occurrence.
> I'm not entirely certain what motivates people to act like that online when they're relatively normal offline, but it seems to be a somewhat common occurrence.
Anonymity probably?
I'm a pretty normal dude offline, your average American programmer. On reddit I'm in all socialist/communist subreddits talking about revolution 24/7. Intellectually I agree with intersectional Marxism, but I don't feel comfortable enough to discuss these in real life, and I don't care enough to (or am too lazy to) act upon these ideas in real life. So, when I go to reddit I become "a different person", not because I try to be this person, but the comfort of anonymity allows me to express my ideas easier.
If you're a long-time Reddit user, you probably already know this, but here goes: He was eventually exposed by a journalist. Surprisingly, he is actually a pretty normal middle-aged man. He worked as a programmer (and was immediately fired when the news aired). He has a disabled wife for whom he is the sole financial support. If I remember correctly, he has adult children, who were aware of what he did on Reddit and had usernames that referenced their relationship with him. Apparently, he used his time on Reddit as a way to relieve stress, or something like that.
I'm not entirely certain what motivates people to act like that online when they're relatively normal offline, but it seems to be a somewhat common occurrence.