Digital Dualism
The internet and social media platforms offer new potential for disinhibited expression online. When people are able to engage in discourse anonymously, they have the ability to say much more than they could with offline without necessarily having to fear any sustaining social repercussions.
Digital dualism is the notion that people act differently online than they do offline. This phenomenon has been frequently observed and the academic concern is generally focused on when this leads to dangerous instances of online activism. Echo chamber effects on top of disinhibited internet activity may explain some of the increasing extremism in recent years. However, instances of problematic digital dualism are associated with certain characteristics of internet users, and not all internet users are operating under an anonymous guise. Generally, traits associated with a propensity towards online disinhibition include a lacking sense of self control and experiences of psychological distress.
Even with people more prone to engage in disinhibited activity online, they tend not to violate the social norms of the insider group they feel apart of. So a group of disinhibited people online interacting with each other may violate social norms in the same way, but the violation of social norms isn't sporadic and unique from individual to individual.
Shown above: A lecture on digital dualism and concerns surrounding integration of technology
Digital dualism is a phenomenon that may warrant some concern. The internet facilitates offline action, and if disinhibited individuals are more easily able to collaborate, there is potential for organized offline action geared around dangerous ideas. There may be fallacy contained within the premise of digital dualism, though.
Nathan Jurgenson proposed in a 2011 article that the concept of digital dualism, and the tendency to separate the digital and physical, may actually be rooted in fallacy. To fundamentally separate them, in his view, would be reductive, and the internet is best viewed as an extension of our reality. People who act disinhibited online are doing so for reasons unrelated to the internet being their medium of expression, and there may not be reason to assume it's promoting the disinhibition of those who are well-adjusted beyond any extent it would offline.