The masks of inscrutability, or are you really you?

[HerenIstarion]

The title is a joke, of course . Butty but:

My view tends to be quite the opposite. Sure, I don't know what anyone else on this forum actually looks like. But, quite frankly, I also don't care what any of you look like. In many cases, I don't know your ages; in some cases, I don't know your sexes. But again, I don't care. Maybe (far-fetched as it seems) some of you in fact lie about these things. A third time: I don't care.

Goody one, I agree heartily

and inevitably judgements are made; preconceptions arise...the physical guises that we wear in "the real world" are stripped away. It's almost a kind of osanwe.

But physical guises are replaced with guise of words. And words may give rise to preconceptions likewise. It is easier to make a judgement on the unfortunate occassion of ill-chosen sentence here. Besides, physical 'guises' are as much a guise as the means of communication? Gestures, smiles, wink of an eye can make a better impression, emotional message may be of more importance at certain moments than 'bare' words, transfer of information, or 'meaning'?

But I would say that someone who interacts with me only through the internet probably knows me - that is, the real me, my mind - better than someone who interacts with me in the real world for a comparable amount of time

But is it the real you or rather an impression, a copy, a shadow of your personality your words left on the mind of the reader? Do your photographs all resemble each other in a way giving complete stranger a chance, seeing them for the first time, to have no doubts that it is the same person on all of them? Does not your 'you' change with the times considerably? Or even the morning and the evening of the very same day? (Analogy: rereading my own posts of 3 or 4 years ago, I'm completely sure I would not have written the same thing (not the data handled, its handling rather) if I were to write the post today. At times I feel that I would not have replied at all, if it were today that the discussion took place)

Can you bet from my words only even whether I do seriosly discuss the issue with you, or secretly do laugh my head off right now, behind mine and yours screens?