It’s no revelation that people will say things online they might hold back if talking with the same person face to face. Why is that? Experts say there’s not just one reason.  Dr. Sherry Turkle, a psychologist at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of Alone Together: Why We Expect More from Technology and Less from Each Other, says that communicating digitally brings with it its own sets of barriers, which makes what we say somehow less real. When you type something on a smartphone, for instance, “You are publishing, but you don’t feel like you are. So what if you say, ‘I hate you’ on this tiny little thing? It’s like a toy. It doesn’t feel consequential.” Another issue, however, might be the very nature of social networking sites such as Facebook, which tells us that we have loads of friends who are encouraged to like whatever we post. “Think of it as a licensing effect,” says Keith Wilcox, co-author of a recent study on how using Facebook lowers our self control. “You feel good about yourself so you feel a sense of entitlement; and you want to protect that enhanced view, which might be why people are lashing out so strongly at others who don’t share their opinions.” (Wall Street Journal)