Several years ago, I regularly commuted from my hometown to the college by the inter-city bus. The bus drivers were always the same two middle-aged Shanghainese guys. Both of them were typical Shanghainese (not stereotyping): gaunt and shrewd. The bus drivers were also talkative, but mostly speaking to their fellow Shanghainese who either were working in my hometown or came for business. Apparently, they looked down upon the rest of commuters because most of us were from small rural towns.

It was drizzling that day. As a student who always purchased advance tickets, I sat in the front passenger row just behind the driver seat. One driver was busy collecting tickets and shuffling passengers, and the other was cleaning up the front window. While wiping the windows, the latter might recognized me as a regular student commuter and somehow had some respects to me. With a big smile, he started to explain to me what he was doing. He told me that by spraying some diluted detergent on the window and wiping it with the tower, fog would not form in the window. This was his idea, he asserted proudly. He continued to tell me all sorts of tricks he learned or discovered during more than ten years of driving, which I had no faintest idea. Obviously the conversion impressed me so much that even today I can still recall it vividly. His proud speech, his exaggerated demonstration, and his pseudo-scientific knowledge looked funny then and now.

This is a typical case of show-off. However, it is not an unusual or bad thing. People do this to their relatives, friends, and in the above case, strangers. In fact, in the internet era, almost all netters are showing off something they pretend to be knowledgeable. Thousands of self-promoted experts (on almost everything) are talking in various forums day and night, millions of bloggers offer their ideas and opinions relentlessly, and even more people browse and leave comments on issues about which they have no idea. In a sense, the internet is a big stage for anonymous people to show off.

Why do people show off? Primarily, people want to get attention or hide something when they show off. But why do people show off to strangers, and in the internet era, to the anonymous and sometimes malicious surfers?

I think in the forum case, it may be related to self actualization and the desire of belonging. Most people live in humble lives, are lack of fame and sometimes are ostracized. They want to be identified in a group. That’s why forum is so popular in Chinese society. Lack of face-to-face communications among oversea Chinese and being deprived of free speech in Mainland China facilitate the popularity of anonymous forum discussion. A bit show off is the right path to let others know that you are worthy and similar to them.

In the blog case, things are slightly different. People are blogging politics, real time news, and life style. The most popular blogs are probably diary style blogs. What fascinates me is that people are quite generous and open to reveal the secrets of their personal life. They are not afraid of being caught, let alone being ridiculed by strangers. Sure, it includes my blogs.

I am not sure what the purpose is for people disclosing their personal life over the internet. Maybe blogs are sort of mental passages for venting out the daily stress, or just ways to reveal the other side of self without compromising the real life. Maybe some people just like writing something, and the best thing they can write is about themselves.

Any other ideas?