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Comment by conductr | Hacker News Reader

The dynamics at play are the same. But people still behave differently in different environments. Just like the real world;

For example, Anonymity plays an outsized role in the equation. FB is as you said essentially the same as Reddit except (most) people self censor to a degree that keeps it mostly cordial. They’re not going to use certain language and allow their full opinions to be heard, because someone they actually know could be reading. (Some people don’t care and post unfiltered but speaking of the majority).

Generally People posting on LinkedIn is often going to be some form of HR speak, they don’t want to offend anyone in their professional network. They’re not going to talk about religion and politics and whatnot.

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"people still behave differently in different environments."

Mostly I don't. Nearing my 7th decade, I have spent most of my adult life seeking convergence of my private and public self. It's one reason that since the early 90s I have used my initials as my username everywhere.

I highly value privacy but have no need of anonymity, though I understand it's life or death for too many.

And I don't mean I would be the same around a stranger as I am my wife of 35 years. I mean I would be my honest, authentic self for each context. Twitter or nestr, Facebook or Reddit, church or mall, my hometown USA or Berlin.

I rarely comment here because I rarely have any value to add.

I can relate with most of this. But I also know I have some unpopular opinions on certain matters. I will discuss on HN/Reddit - or even IRL if I'm talking to a stranger/someone where risk is low of it getting back to "core" network. In other environments, I'm likely to just keep silent on those opinions. Even then, in some environments (work/school/church), some topics are completely off limits and I won't even sit in silence (eg. if coworkers talk politics/religion I just physically leave the conversation).

I too feel I'm my true authentic self in each scenarios, I'm just calculating risk, disruption, impact to reputation, etc and can always choose silence as a safe option. Although, safe discussion on these topics is often the most interesting to me. It's controversial stuff where my opinions have reason 'to me' but I'm open to hearing other points of view. I don't see my thoughts as immutable so if some stranger on the internet says something I haven't considered, I might just change my way of thinking entirely.

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