I think it’s both an important feature and a significant problem. Because people are anonymous, they can pretend to be anyone they want on the internet. For example, I pretend to be a wise, empathetic, caring person. On the other hand, anonymity allows you to say things without consequence that you might otherwise never say. For example, I am a philanderer, and I can talk about what I’ve done and why I’ve done it without people giving me shit in real life. Oddly, they haven’t been giving me shit in online life, either. Maybe that’s because they don’t know I’m a cross-dressing dolphin.
Seriously though—for those with various stigmas or other difficulties that make social interaction difficult, the anonymity of the internet can make you feel safe enough to take risks. I’d never talk about mental illness in real life. I talk about it all the time here. Ad nauseum, in fact. I think there are some people out there who would rather eat barbed wire than read another one of my comments about mental illness.