Beyond Age and Gender

   In the social neighborhoods of the Internet the pressure to reveal age and gender is high because these two features are so fundamental to the initial impression. Nationality and race are also salient characteristics. Questions about location, from which you can infer national origin, are quite common. "Where are u?" is a frequent opening gambit in synchronous social conversations because the Internet's global reach makes the answers surprising. However, people do not probe others about race with the same kind of direct boldness they inquire about age, gender, or location. Strangely, social Internet users do not want to create a racially prejudiced impression, but the norms of this environment carry no sanctions against queries that might divulge other kinds of prejudices.

   Besides the central traits we rely on so heavily, we all have constructed many more categories over our years of experience with other human beings. Although they rarely have obvious verbal labels, they might reflect such category groupings as fascists, space cadets, valley girls, geeks, scam artists, pointy-headed professors, wild-eyed terrorists, generous philanthropists, gullible believers, or ambitious manipulators. It takes more cognitive energy to place someone into any of these categories because we need more than the quick scan of age, sex, race, and warmth/coldness to do it. Nevertheless, it takes less energy than patiently reserving judgment until we can collect enough information to form an impression of a unique individual without relying on our social categories.

   Posters on Usenet inadvertently provide their audience with some useful clues to help readers drop them into one of these more detailed categories. When a message is posted to a group such as alt.psychology.personality, the sender might cross-post it to others, perhaps alt.conspiracy and alt.paranormal. Despite endless advisories against this deluge, senders continue to include all their favorite groups in their audience, and readers will learn something from these group affiliations. In the United States, that is like mailing a letter to your senator explaining your views on a budget amendment, noting that you are sending the copies of the letter to the National Rifle Association, the American Veterans of Foreign Wars, and conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh. None of the receivers is left in the dark about your political leanings.