Behind the screen one can lose their identity. They can become lost in a sea comments between fellow internet users. Internet anonymity affects how people act when on the internet and how people perceive anonymous comments.

Anonymity can be described on a two axis graph, said software engineer Eli Omernick, who has worked in natural language processing. Natural language processing is the computer science study of human and computer interaction.

“We write comments on online media differently than we write emails or talk on the phone or speak face to face,” Omernick said. “I think it’s easiest to think of this in terms of two factors: deindividuation and communication bandwidth.”

Omernick said that deindividuation is how much we forget or stop caring that our actions have effects.

“When people are indistinguishable within a group their self regulation lowers,” Omernick said. “They don’t filter their comments or think through the consequences of their actions because in their minds, the responsibility is diffused throughout the group and they don’t hold themselves individually accountable.”

He described communication bandwidth as all the other nonverbal things people do to communicate, such as head nods and facial expressions.

“You can’t see who you’re talking to, you can’t hear that extra hesitation or tension in their voice, and you have no idea what the age or gender or cultural background is of the person you’re engaging with,” he said. “When you lack this extra information it becomes harder to convince yourself that there is any consequence to what you’re doing.”

Students use apps and websites such as Ask.fm, Yik Yak and Reddit that allow for anonymous postings and comments.

When a person knows and understands that his name is not attached to what he  says, then he will act differently, according to the New York Times.

“I think that a person who feels like they are anonymous feels a certain kind of ability to say whatever they want,” said social psychology teacher Anne Aldridge-Peacock. “To be provocative if they want to be, to be brutally honest if they want to be, to be really mean if they want to be.”

Omernick also said that high deindividuation makes it hard for outsiders to join in larger group discussions. In a high deindividuation group, there is a mob mentality so when a person disagrees with the thoughts and ideas of the group it is harder for them to contribute their ideas without being harassed.

“Opinions which don’t adhere to the common stance of the community can be immediately rejected without consideration and the individual originating the opinion becomes very singled out in the group,” he said. “This can actually discourage individuals from trying to engage with a community if they identify themselves as an outsider.”

For example, when people question why certain teachers get negative attention on Yik Yak, the posts receive downvotes and harsh comments.

On anonymous forums, users can post content without social consequences.

“If someone has something really sexist or racist to say, they have to right to say that,” Aldridge-Peacock said. “But then I think they also need to own it and take responsibility and live with the reputation that that is what they think.”

Senior Kieran Baack, who created the anonymous petition to reduce weekend homework in Sept., believes that internet anonymity has more benefits than drawbacks.

“It gives the population more free speech,” Baack said.

However, Aldridge-Peacock said that people should take responsibility for their online posts.

“In our society we should be encouraging people to take ownership of their ideas, and people always say that there is freedom of speech, but with that freedom of speech come the consequences,” Aldridge-Peacock said.

Baack originally made the petition about weekend homework on change.org anonymously.

“It allowed the student body as a whole to unite, rather than seeing it as one person’s quest to better student life,” Baack said.

The petition was made anonymously, then publicized on Yik Yak anonymously, which then lead students to spread the word on Facebook

Baack said that he could see how people will disregard the petition because it was made without someone backing it. However, he said his intention was not to hide behind it, but to widen his base of signatures.

Omernick said anonymity 15 years ago was the norm around the internet, but with more access there is more relevance now. It is now a feature, a company or app can choose to make their site be anonymous for the purposes that they want or not to be.