Bizzare Sociology of the Internet

Social structure and anonymity are two entirely incompatible things. What about secret orders and espionage rings?-even there one is not entirely sin nominae and there is plenty in the way of organized social structure. So it leaves the Internet open to the most chaotic of situations. On the one hand you have some privacy in that you can choose a user name and disguise your gender all you like but, the social order is lacking. If you own a website you are more or less the big fish of your little pond but, the wider ocean may never even know you exist. Moreover, as a user of the Internet the only real rise in status comes with the titles of Administrator or Moderator, two names for the same function. That function of course is to act as a Censor watching over a site you do not own to keep it free from illegal and terms of service violators in addition to what the owners request to be eliminated. The Administrator or Moderator is pretty much your second lieutenant in the digital trenches, if paid at all the remuneration is small and the work is quite hard. The user is the common foot soldier, they can act for or against the interests of the owners who stand as the captains and majors, (depending on site size.) . It's only when we get to the realm of celebrity and politicians that we see a deviation. There is little if any room for input by the user and no real requirement for moderation, it essentially functions on the power of vanity yet has little real impact beyond the target audience. Political Organization websites are mostly there to inform those digitally that there is a bricks and mortar party or group existing away from the monitor. If you agree with them you can join them, the same goes for religious websites of the more serious nature. (Fred Phelps does not fall into this category.) The not so serious websites of groups are not much in the way of bricks and mortar, they are there to act as propaganda in order to raise themselves to the level of bricks and mortar or to line the wallets of the propaganists.