Question: Do you think that self-disclosure has a greater impact upon a relationship formed online than if the same relationship was to be formed during a face to face interaction?

David Chadwick answered on 5 Mar 2019:

Yes, absolutely, for several reasons.

Firstly humans are used to interacting face to face. We have been doing it for thousands of years. So we are very good at it (especially if our life depended upon it). We can read body language, facial expressions, eye movements etc, and determine whether a person is being honest, kind, angry etc without even hearing a word they say. So the relationships we form are more solid, trustworthy and durable. Thus a secret told to a good friend in confidence is likely to remain that way.

But when you form a relationship online, then all or most of these physical clues can be missing. You do not know if the picture of the person you see online even belongs to the person you are chatting to. So the relationships can be built on false assumptions and false promises. You have no idea where the person is actually living (or if their claimed identity even belongs to a living person). So when you disclose information online you cannot be sure who will hear it next.

As a good rule of thumb, you should assume that all information you share online is public and that anyone and everyone can access it.

Even if the online person you disclosed it to does not reveal it, the place where it is stored could be hacked and the hackers steal it, as happened to Facebook recently where the personal data of millions of people was stolen.