The main differences are the audience and the permanence. A comment on facebook is likely seen by everyone that friend knows, and the gay person doesn't contro

The main differences are the audience and the permanence. A comment on facebook is likely seen by everyone that friend knows, and the gay person doesn't control the friend's privacy settings, just his own. The other thing is that a comment on facebook is there to be seen whenever someone comes across it, as opposed to a careless comment which may or may not be heard or comprehended by anyone that heard it. One of the other important points to note is that people often have different circles of friends, who may or may not intersect, and even if you control what one group of friends knows, you can't control whether the other group of friends happens to let something slip. A situation that likely wouldn't arise IRL could happen due to the Kevin Bacon degrees of separation rule (sometimes a group of friends will intersect another group through the most bizarre circumstances). edit: I took too long to type this out obviously. Ha.