Are people more sensitive on the internet?

I don't know. It's hard to tell for sure. But I think the fact that you find more people offended on the internet than in real life has to do with several factors, including:

• In written form, because it's all there in front of you for you to analyse, review, and reread, it's harder for people to get away with something stupid they said, and it's also easier for people to dwell on and write responses based on one small thing someone said in their comment. This doesn't happen as easily in the spoken medium.
  
• In general, people say more things that could offend people because we are all wearing masks of anonymity on the internet. It's easier to get away with outrageous remarks, and it's easier to forget each username represents an actual human like yourself. In other words, people say things they would never say face to face.
  
• It's easier for people who have vastly different opinions and ideas of what is socially acceptable to meet on the internet than in real life. In part because many people don't have very diverse social circles, and in part because the internet is international territory. E.g. people from countries with accepting attitudes toward homosexuality are much more likely to meet with people from countries where it is the norm to view homosexuality as a mental disorder.

Rajzino:I don't know. It's hard to tell for sure. But I think the fact that you find more people offended on the internet than in real life has to do with several factors, including:

• In written form, because it's all there in front of you for you to analyse, review, and reread, it's harder for people to get away with something stupid they said, and it's also easier for people to dwell on and write responses based on one small thing someone said in their comment. This doesn't happen as easily in the spoken medium.
  
• In general, people say more things that could offend people because we are all wearing masks of anonymity on the internet. It's easier to get away with outrageous remarks, and it's easier to forget each username represents an actual human like yourself. In other words, people say things they would never say face to face.
  
• It's easier for people who have vastly different opinions and ideas of what is socially acceptable to meet on the internet than in real life. In part because many people don't have very diverse social circles, and in part because the internet is international territory. E.g. people from countries with accepting attitudes toward homosexuality are much more likely to meet with people from countries where it is the norm to view homosexuality as a mental disorder.

Thee forgot one: A lot of people feign offense in an attempt to silence others.

Rajzino:

• In general, people say more things that could offend people because we are all wearing masks of anonymity on the internet. It's easier to get away with outrageous remarks, and it's easier to forget each username represents an actual human like yourself. In other words, people say things they would never say face to face.

I would add the reverse of this. People feel they can be more direct in their responses to offensive statements, and so seem touchier. More, I find that I'm actually more charitable and nuanced online because I can read and reread what a person says to get a fuller and more multifaceted idea of what they could mean.

I think people defend themselves in ways they never would face-to-face because they are separated from more abuse and more sure of what they just read than what they just heard.

Good points, Rikforto!

I do think each of my bullet points has a positive counterpart. For example, the internationality of the internet can be a basis for conflicts that are unlikely to occur in real life, but it also allows for people to get to know more perspectives and develop more sensible and more nuanced opinions. And the internet makes it much easier to make a connection with people from very different cultures.
Although on the other hand there are so-called echo chambers on the internet, where people with unpopular opinions can find each other and reinforce each other's previously unvoiced opinions, in some cases to the point where it becomes destructive for other people. Which is also not nearly as likely to happen without the internet.

The internet is a powerful tool with great benefits and great pitfalls.