Personality Changes on the Internet

[JesusWaffle]

It seems to me that people act quite differently on the internet. This point was driven home to me rather forcefully when I met my dad on AIM for the first time. He is normally a very intelligent fellow (he programs massive online databases), but he was using the graphical emoticons, making typos left and right, and completely ignoring his shift and period keys. He was a completely different person. All the time you see people on the internet acting radically differently then they do in real life. I think the cause of this may have something to do with the relatively consequence-free environment in which they can do whatever they want. The social mask is often stripped away. Any thoughts?