Those Who Post

I am curious about the psychology of the person who posts online--that fellow who feels compelled to comment on whatever he's read, on whatever Web site. And then there's me--the individual fascinated by the comments of others, who finds the ramblings of the readers often more entertaining than the article (or video) itself. 

Reading posts allows me to think I've being given some sort of insight into the psyche of persons attracted to that content. For instance, when I read Tmz.com, or Perezhilton.com, I expect to encounter lots of "First!" posts and individuals cursing at the site hosts, insisting that the content they post is idiotic, and that they need to get real lives. On reputable new sites, I generally encouter readers with a bit more wit, just as much passion, and just as much venom delivered in slightly less confrontational ways. On YouTube, every string of posts seems eventually to devolve into race-baiting, wherein dissenters and sometimes sympathetic posters are given instructions as to how to perform various unspeakable acts on their relatives, most commonly their mothers. Is that person more likely to post wherever he or she ends up in cyberspace? Are your more likely to post if you're angry and bitter than it you're content and sane?

Would anyone care to chime/weigh in on who he/she thinks is most commonly compelled to post? I will admit, I've written a thing or two here and there, just to have my say or dispute some ridiculous, excessively destructive and mean-spirited, unwarranted comment. Yet I always post anonymously. Does that make me a coward, unable to stand behind my own admissions, hiding behind a computer screen that doesn't force me to reflect upon my own image?

If I set this up correctly, my screen name on this site should be a pseudonym as well. Perhaps I'm comforted by the fact that, as the Internet gathers and stores more information about me than I could possible process in a lifetime, unearthing and reintroducing embarassing facts that I thought time had extinguished and erased from public consciousness and history, I have a little anonymity, a little mystery left. That is, until the host of this site decides to give me up to NBC for watching their copyrighted material on sites from China because NBC took down their first-run shows' streaming video prematurely to force people to purchase DVDs.