# Are you different IRL than you are online? **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [May 15, 2000, 11:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-different-irl-than-you-are-online/19617 "2000-05-15T23:51:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kvallulf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/898d66/32.png) [@Kvallulf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kvallulf)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2000, 2:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-different-irl-than-you-are-online/19617/41 "2000-05-18T02:13:46Z")
No ---
**Author:** ![Michi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c37758/32.png) [@Michi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Michi)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2000, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-different-irl-than-you-are-online/19617/42 "2000-05-18T02:49:51Z")
I’m in the same boat as the OP. It’s a lot easier for me to express myself here online than it is IRL. ---
**Author:** ![TVeblen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/4bbf92/32.png) [@TVeblen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TVeblen)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2000, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-different-irl-than-you-are-online/19617/43 "2000-05-18T02:56:21Z")
This is a tough question, which means it’s a good one. It’s really hard to know how you come across at all, in person or online. My guess is that IRL I come across as either much quieter or much looser than online, depending on the company and my comfort level. (Life-long battle w/ shyness.) I’m a lot jazzier and colloquial IRL, mainly because it’s _hard_, at least for me, to know how written words will be taken. In person, I can gauge reactions, etc. So probably I come across as a lot more formal here than I am in person. Probably. Actually, I have no idea. At a loss, Veb ---
**Author:** ![Shirley\_Ujest](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/45deac/32.png) [@Shirley\_Ujest](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shirley_Ujest)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2000, 3:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-different-irl-than-you-are-online/19617/44 "2000-05-18T03:01:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*\* > You guys are familiar with the term “Staircase Humor,” right? > > Meaning the clever, witty, absolutely perfect thing to say that suddenly strikes you as you’re on the stairs, leaving? > > I think that’s something we all benefit from online…we can sit staring at the last post like slack-jawed yokels for ten minutes until a funny remark occurs to us, then type it in quick. > > Whereas IRL we’d just sit staring at each other like slack-jawed yokels. > \*\* :::wide eyed…mouth open::::: Actually, IRL, I come off as sounding more intelligent…well, would you beleive witty at least? and I know when to keep my mouth shut 75% of the time. VR, my fingers have a mind of their own and my brain is kept in a glass on the desk. Oh, in VR, I’m taller. ---
**Author:** ![NothingMan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/b77776/32.png) [@NothingMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NothingMan)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2000, 5:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-different-irl-than-you-are-online/19617/45 "2000-05-18T05:15:15Z")
I don’t think it is necessarily a bad thing to be different online than off. I mean, it’s not right to purposely decieve people, but simply to present yourself in another fashion is natural. In truth, I am much more confident and extraverted IRL. I suppose the reason I am more quiet (in the sense I lurk a great deal) on the MB is that it is hard to determine how a post may be percieved. ---
**Author:** ![Catrandom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/7bcc69/32.png) [@Catrandom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Catrandom)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2000, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-different-irl-than-you-are-online/19617/46 "2000-05-18T05:25:49Z")
I am far more aggressive and outgoing IRL, and worlds more opinionated. I don’t do that online because it is so easy to be misunderstood (or worse, understood perfectly well…) I flatter myself that I seem much more reasonable and levelheaded online than I ever seem offline. Catrandom ---
**Author:** ![Doobieous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/da6949/32.png) [@Doobieous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doobieous)\ **Post date:** [May 18, 2000, 2:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-different-irl-than-you-are-online/19617/47 "2000-05-18T14:37:06Z")
I think online i’m more open, and a bit more impatient than IRL. I think i’m funnier OL than IRL, because i can’t seem to get that funny line out as fast IRL. However, IRL my sarcasm shows more (I get it from both of my parents). I’m a bit quieter IRL i think. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-you-different-irl-than-you-are-online/19617.md?page=2)