Cutting the Cords

Disclaimer: This is going to be a difficult discussion using words that may or may not make you giggle. Consider yourself warned.
And with that...here we go.

Bondage. I'll let you consider that. Got it? Good.
I'd like to take a moment to consider roles, their place in the real world and digital world, and how we understand them as individuals. I bring you back to that pesky Bondage issue.
In the S&M world, there is an obvious break between characters - there is the slave and the master. There are no middle zones, no combination elements, it is what it is. You pick one side of the line or the other.
Stay with me here.
In the real world, we are this person who must deal with the terms of the world - its expectations and desires. We are slave to social norms and acceptable behaviors.
But online has removed the ideas of "acceptable" and replaced it with "ideal" - thus empowering us as masters of our identities; free of the influences of culture, family and peer.
As a retailer, an admin, referee, gamer, community member, convention demo-er, I've sort of experienced the gauntlet of gamer personalities online and off. And throughout all those experiences, the singular question that has plagued my mind is this:
Why the hell are decent "real" people complete and utter asshats online?
And sure, there's the whole "anonymity" issue, hiding behind the monitor and such, getting back at all the bullies in the world, but I believe that there's more to it than that.
I believe that the digital realm grants us a mask with which to live a perpetual masquerade. And this simple form of freedom, this act of rebellion against the expected norm is what makes us feel inclined to test the social waters. Things that would never fly in the real world are suddenly applicable online, and currently, expected. I don't think it always starts as malice, but mere curiosity. All our lives we are told to never behave certain ways, never verbalize certain things...and then the Internet came along.
But whether we believe we're honest or not online, there is an exaggeration. No matter how true to form you try to be, your peers will assume that you're stretching the truth despite your honest claims. Every person on this planet can relate with the desire to be free - without pressure from friends, family, coworkers etc. And the simplicity of a gamertag suddenly made hiding from those pressures so much easier. So much lighter. And for that fragment of time, that bit of freedom, you could ignore the consequences because this was not "real".
But cyber-crime is on the rise, making fantasy reality at supersonic speed. The main question here is - what are we to do? People are not the same online, no matter how much you try to be; people are either overly suspicious or entirely insane on the internet.
Back to my bondage issue. We are supposedly masters of our own realm, reigning in the unimaginable power of the internet for our own selfish desires, right? But are we not now slaves to it just as we are enslaved by society? News, entertainment, creativity - everything is online now. We are entirely dependent on technology to survive as a culture.
I don't pretend to prompt any sort of solution here, but merely a bit of food for thought. I find myself analyzing my online persona more each day in context to my physical one and end up with a good deal of surprise at the end of the day. This sense of acknowledgment helps me understand the difference between real and surreal, and which mask is ideal for each.
I propose that we are both slave and master to our own destinies, to our infinitely changing identities, and that the only truth, both online and off, is that nothing is static and everything evolves.
Especially people.
And doubly especially...Pokemon.