5 ms·

I’m surprised more people are not using pseudonyms online. First rule of social media: Don’t use your real name.

SN76477 5y ago
When I was younger, the internet was a tool for discovery and creativity. We used creative names. Today, it is an extension of personality.
- meowface 5y ago
  It doesn't have to be. There are plenty of (non-troll) Twitter users who use pseudonyms. That can still be an extension of personality, but I'm guessing it's less likely to be the primary focus.
koolba 5y ago
It's a delicate balance of not tieing inflammatory statements to your true persona, yet also profiting off of any fame that may arise from your public presence. For the vast majority of people erring on the side of anonymity is the right choice. You can only go in the other direction once.
- Jiocus 5y ago
  Currently, the majority of people seem to vastly overestimate the prospect of fame and act accordingly.
standardUser 5y ago
When I'm dealing with people I actually know - which is nearly all of my social media use - I prefer to use my actual name just as I do when we interact outside of social media. Using as fake name with these people would be bizarre and confusing. Even if I were to use a pseudonym, I would not pretend it afforded me any guarantee of anonymity anyway.
marsrover 5y ago
Second rule of social media: never use the same pseudonym twice.
grayhatter 5y ago
While I'm clearly not using my real name here, I'm also not hiding it generally. I'd be hard pressed to advocate for hiding as well. I wouldn't say anything with a pseudonym that I wouldn't say with my real name. inb4 "not everyone has that luxury!" Yes, I understand that already. Everyone has to evaluate their own risks, and decide for themselves; thanks... But that's the point I'm attempting explain. If you wont sign your name to it, why are you willing to say it at all? Where's the line between what you believe, and what you're willing to accept responsibility for believing?
- ganzuul 5y ago
  Are you aware that people are having their lives ruined for comments they made years ago and in good faith? Why would a name I chose for myself be worth any less than a name someone else picked?
  - grayhatter 5y ago
    > Are you aware that people are having their lives ruined for comments they made years ago and in good faith? Yes. I'm going to pretend you made the comment I'm assuming you meant to. No that's not ok with me. I'm strongly opposed to taking something someone said out of context and using it as ammo for a different conversation. I'm also strongly opposed to doing anything other than assuming good faith when trying to interpret previous comments. I don't believe the solution to people who act in opposition to those ideal is hiding. > Why would a name I chose for myself be worth any less than a name someone else picked? It wouldn't, but that's not the connotation of the OP. The intent was to use a name to hide your real identity. You can choose your real identity, but that's different from hiding behind a pseudonym.
- Causality1 5y ago
  Because nobody wants to be punished? Sure it would be awfully noble of me to sacrifice my relationship with half my family to openly support LGBT causes or defunding the police, but I'm not that noble. If I can't do it anonymously I'm not going to do it.
sponaugle 5y ago
This is an interesting approach to take. I have taken the opposite approach by using my real name in almost all cases, and my name in unique enough that a google search will directly lead to me. The benefit of using my real name is how what I say ties into other people that know me through other channels. Someone might read a post I made about a multiprocessor Arduino design, and recognize my name as it related to Subaru stuff. These connections, in the real world, are the primary benefit of social media in the first place. There is a downside.. if I had something negative to say I have to give it some consideration given the easy linking. I'm not sure that is always a bad thing, but it isn't always a good thing either.
- ghoward 5y ago
  I have the same approach, and I agree that it helps me reconsider before posting something I would regret.
  - haunter 5y ago
    Regret now or 10 years later when the culture changed?
    - ghoward 5y ago
      I would hope that my moral compass doesn't depend on the current culture, so only now. Current culture probably thinks I'm a terrible person anyway.
- BitwiseFool 5y ago
  Be weary because what you say may be seem harmless and conventional when you post it, but it could become unacceptable in the future.
  - deleted 5y ago
    [deleted]
  - ryandrake 5y ago
scottwhudson 5y ago
That's explicitly against the TOS for most social media platforms, and some (like Facebook) are really cracking down on pseudonym accounts over the last few years.
- bidirectional 5y ago
  It's against the ToS for Facebook and LinkedIn, it's perfectly fine on Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Youtube, Tiktok, Tumblr, Reddit, Pinterest, etc. Definitely not most platforms, just the few that place weight on real identity.
caseysoftware 5y ago
Pseudonyms are ridiculously hard for normal people to keep up and protect sufficiently, even against normal (aka not State) level actors. The more you write, the more data there is. With enough patterns and idioms - everything from word choice to punctuation to posting times - they can be used to correlate and potentially identify a user. And realistically, since this isn't a court of law (where there are previously concrete rules in play), they don't need "beyond a reasonable doubt" or even "preponderance of the evidence" but something as simple as "don't these things look the same!?" to fire up a mob to start a campaign to get someone fired or suspended. At that point, the target has to hope they can either a) prove it's not them or b) the leadership has integrity to hold them to reasonable standards. It's ugly.
koheripbal 5y ago
When my daughter started using the internet, my advice was "be a superhero". Don't use your real name, and don't show your face publicly. I taught her to use a password manager so that she would have a different username for each site, and got here a primary gmail account that was easy to say, but not related to her real name. Anonymity is an asset.

When I was younger, the internet was a tool for discovery and creativity. We used creative names. Today, it is an extension of personality.

meowface 5y ago
It doesn't have to be. There are plenty of (non-troll) Twitter users who use pseudonyms. That can still be an extension of personality, but I'm guessing it's less likely to be the primary focus.

koolba 5y ago

It's a delicate balance of not tieing inflammatory statements to your true persona, yet also profiting off of any fame that may arise from your public presence. For the vast majority of people erring on the side of anonymity is the right choice. You can only go in the other direction once.

Jiocus 5y ago
Currently, the majority of people seem to vastly overestimate the prospect of fame and act accordingly.

standardUser 5y ago

When I'm dealing with people I actually know - which is nearly all of my social media use - I prefer to use my actual name just as I do when we interact outside of social media. Using as fake name with these people would be bizarre and confusing. Even if I were to use a pseudonym, I would not pretend it afforded me any guarantee of anonymity anyway.

marsrover 5y ago

Second rule of social media: never use the same pseudonym twice.

grayhatter 5y ago

While I'm clearly not using my real name here, I'm also not hiding it generally. I'd be hard pressed to advocate for hiding as well. I wouldn't say anything with a pseudonym that I wouldn't say with my real name. inb4 "not everyone has that luxury!" Yes, I understand that already. Everyone has to evaluate their own risks, and decide for themselves; thanks... But that's the point I'm attempting explain. If you wont sign your name to it, why are you willing to say it at all? Where's the line between what you believe, and what you're willing to accept responsibility for believing?

ganzuul 5y ago
Are you aware that people are having their lives ruined for comments they made years ago and in good faith? Why would a name I chose for myself be worth any less than a name someone else picked?
- grayhatter 5y ago
  > Are you aware that people are having their lives ruined for comments they made years ago and in good faith? Yes. I'm going to pretend you made the comment I'm assuming you meant to. No that's not ok with me. I'm strongly opposed to taking something someone said out of context and using it as ammo for a different conversation. I'm also strongly opposed to doing anything other than assuming good faith when trying to interpret previous comments. I don't believe the solution to people who act in opposition to those ideal is hiding. > Why would a name I chose for myself be worth any less than a name someone else picked? It wouldn't, but that's not the connotation of the OP. The intent was to use a name to hide your real identity. You can choose your real identity, but that's different from hiding behind a pseudonym.
Causality1 5y ago
Because nobody wants to be punished? Sure it would be awfully noble of me to sacrifice my relationship with half my family to openly support LGBT causes or defunding the police, but I'm not that noble. If I can't do it anonymously I'm not going to do it.

sponaugle 5y ago

This is an interesting approach to take. I have taken the opposite approach by using my real name in almost all cases, and my name in unique enough that a google search will directly lead to me. The benefit of using my real name is how what I say ties into other people that know me through other channels. Someone might read a post I made about a multiprocessor Arduino design, and recognize my name as it related to Subaru stuff. These connections, in the real world, are the primary benefit of social media in the first place. There is a downside.. if I had something negative to say I have to give it some consideration given the easy linking. I'm not sure that is always a bad thing, but it isn't always a good thing either.

ghoward 5y ago
I have the same approach, and I agree that it helps me reconsider before posting something I would regret.
- haunter 5y ago
  Regret now or 10 years later when the culture changed?
  - ghoward 5y ago
    I would hope that my moral compass doesn't depend on the current culture, so only now. Current culture probably thinks I'm a terrible person anyway.
BitwiseFool 5y ago
Be weary because what you say may be seem harmless and conventional when you post it, but it could become unacceptable in the future.
- deleted 5y ago
  [deleted]
- ryandrake 5y ago

scottwhudson 5y ago

That's explicitly against the TOS for most social media platforms, and some (like Facebook) are really cracking down on pseudonym accounts over the last few years.

bidirectional 5y ago
It's against the ToS for Facebook and LinkedIn, it's perfectly fine on Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, Youtube, Tiktok, Tumblr, Reddit, Pinterest, etc. Definitely not most platforms, just the few that place weight on real identity.

caseysoftware 5y ago

Pseudonyms are ridiculously hard for normal people to keep up and protect sufficiently, even against normal (aka not State) level actors. The more you write, the more data there is. With enough patterns and idioms - everything from word choice to punctuation to posting times - they can be used to correlate and potentially identify a user. And realistically, since this isn't a court of law (where there are previously concrete rules in play), they don't need "beyond a reasonable doubt" or even "preponderance of the evidence" but something as simple as "don't these things look the same!?" to fire up a mob to start a campaign to get someone fired or suspended. At that point, the target has to hope they can either a) prove it's not them or b) the leadership has integrity to hold them to reasonable standards. It's ugly.

koheripbal 5y ago

When my daughter started using the internet, my advice was "be a superhero". Don't use your real name, and don't show your face publicly. I taught her to use a password manager so that she would have a different username for each site, and got here a primary gmail account that was easy to say, but not related to her real name. Anonymity is an asset.