Disclosure and Hiding Online. Pleading for Prevention of Online Violence among Teenagers

The present paper discusses disclosure, hiding and self protection in the current online interactions among teenagers. It focuses on disclosure of inner feelings and attitudes, and hiding as a form of self protection online. We explore more specific the following questions: How the feelings and attitudes are disclosed and understood online when teenagers use instant messenger; For what do teenagers choose to disclose themselves on instant messenger and control the conditions of their interactions online? The qualitative research method we used to explore the mentioned questions was the offline and online interview. Two hypotheses emerged and are presented as the results of this study. These are analysed, illustrated by teenager’s responses, discussed and on hand to be verified with statistical method in further quantitative research. Reduced nonverbal cues online reduce the accuracy of empathic understanding which do not stop teenagers to disclose and develop sympathy online. Teenagers choose to disclose themselves online in order to get and/or to maintain a sense of belongingness, to get help or to exercise assertiveness and self-confidence. They learn to control the conditions of their online interactions in order to play with each other or to protect their selves from potential hurts and unwanted intrusions: they choose either to gossip, attack or to hide them online. The present study pleads for action research and building social programs in order to prevent online and offline violence.