The meteoric rise of social media sites like Bebo, Facebook, MySpace and Twitter are certainly nothing new, but are such sites causing unsociable or impolite behavioural traits amongst users?

The BBC investigative programme Newsnight discussed why people behave so differently online in its show last night. Journalist Stephen Smith harnessed the power of the internet by using the latest social media site Chatroulette – the brainchild of a 17 year old Moscow student, launched last November.

Smith discovered how many times he could get ”nexted” within seconds and how people behaved differently when not in ”real world” situations. A good example of this was the reportedly high numbers of half naked users frequenting the site.

Unlike standard social content generation sites where users are accustomed to joining networks and adding friends, Chatroulette is entirely random. Its makers argue that this creates a ”real life” scenario where people interact with strangers as they would when going to the supermarket or using public transport.

Sharon Vaknin of Cnet.com comments of Chatroulette that ”In the real world, people don’t get the opportunity to present their profiles. There is a moment when two people meet and judgement is passed: a first impression. From there, the relationship ends or evolves – Chatroulette emulates such an experience with one exception – you can’t get ‘nexted’ in real life.”

This ”nexting” was argued by Newsnight’s Smith as the start of the death of etiquette, where ”nexting” people in ”real life” would be socially unacceptable and society would cease to function in a sustainable way.

Indeed, to look at the most popular social media sites such as Facebook, it would not be seen as acceptable or polite to ”poke” someone in real life and run away, force friendship on those you don’t know, or to ignore certain people.

Nevertheless, the internet provides a curtain for people to hide behind according to many psychologists and sociologists, where normally quiet people may indulge in extrovert or inappropriate behaviour – dubbed the ”disinhibitation effect.”

Sonia Livingstone, Professor of Social Psychology at the London School Economics, was cited in The Times as saying that online behaviour is dramatically different from real-world situations, saying: We’re used to snubbing people. We don’t call them back. We don’t answer their holiday postcards. But with social media, there is a very evident decision moment.”

John Suler’s article ‘The Psychology of Cyberspace’, attributes online behavioural changes to the invisibility, anonymity and imagination of users, as well as the breakdown of normal barriers of authority. He investigates the idea that the internet reveals one’s true self, which is normally inhibited in ”real life” situations.

Newsnight raised important issues surrounding such social media behaviour that have caused commentators to consider whether users lack of manners will spill over into ”real life” or whether they will stay firmly locked up in cyberspace.

What is certain, is that more and more people are using social media in their everyday lives, with Facebook holding more than 400 million active users.