Unac­count­abil­ity and anonymity on the Inter­net has brought about “the end of empa­thy”, says Jason Cala­ca­nis, as he dis­cusses the ‘con­di­tion’ of Inter­net Asperger’s Syn­drome:

This dis­ease affects peo­ple when their com­mu­ni­ca­tion moves to dig­i­tal, and the emo­tional cues of face-to-face interaction–including tone, facial expres­sion and the so called “blush response”–are lost. […]

In this syn­drome, the afflicted stops see­ing the human­ity in other peo­ple. They view indi­vid­u­als as objects, not indi­vid­u­als. The focus on repet­i­tive behaviors–checking email, blog­ging, twit­ter­ing and retir­ing andys–combines with an inabil­ity to feel empa­thy and con­nect with people.

[…] In IAS, screen names and avatars shift from rep­re­sent­ing peo­ple to rep­re­sent­ing char­ac­ters in a video game. Our 2600’s and 64’s have trained us to pound these char­ac­ters into sub­mis­sion in order to level up. We look at blog­gers, peo­ple on Twit­ter and pod­cast­ers not as indi­vid­u­als, but as challenges–in some cases, “bosses”–that we must crush to make it to the next phase.

A good arti­cle dis­cussing the per­ils of liv­ing our lives in pub­lic, although I feel it loses some­thing toward the end when it takes on a more per­sonal tone.

via LA Times