A Study of Anonymity in Online Relationships and Sociological Factors Affecting It

Introduction Hiding the identity and performing multiple roles within virtual space is one of the several facilities that the Internet provides for its users. Using this feature has made users both the author of the text and the author of their own identity (Turkl, 1996: 26). Two types of factors are commonly known as effective factors: identity attributes of users and environmental features, both virtual and real, that is, all users do not equally hide identity or vice versa (Kalinovsky and Adam Matheti, 2011: 7-8; Jiang et al., 2011: 59-58; Chiu, 2007: 725). The purpose of this study is to describe and explain the relationship between individual and environmental characteristics with anonymity of the actors in the Internet using Dramaturgical perspective of Goffman and Terkel. According to Goffman's perspective, people are involved in interactions and performances. The performances are partly shaped by the social environment and audiences’ interpretations. An important dimension of the implementation of the "front" is that the front consists of all the permanent features that a person intentionally or inadvertently implements during performances, Goffman divided the front into two parts of the environment and personal front. The environment is all of the underlying objects that provide space for action. The personal front includes items that are in close contact with the actor himself, including gender, age, and other personal features. (Goffman, 2012: 35-36). He concludes that there is a relationship between individuals' performances and social identity. Virtual space researchers, such as Sherri Terkel (1996), using Goffman's perspective, discus two types of identities: Offline identity and online identity. Offline identity is our objective identity and online identity is an identity that Internet users use in virtual communities. Presence in virtual space allows the user to access the virtual environment due to its specific features, including the possibility of anonymity and the removal of physical signs, which, by and large, play a variety of different roles at different times of their own choosing. Goffman calls these behaviors as "secret consumption": if one wants to make ideal criteria during his performance, he will have to hide or remove actions that do not fit these criteria. Given the limitations, barriers, and traditions in the Iranian social environment for interacting with the opposite sex on the one hand and the increasing use of the In