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It's worth pointing out that there's a difference between "anonymity" and "not-my-real-name". Most people on the Internet are probably not anonymized by their s
by Hyena 15y ago
It's worth pointing out that there's a difference between "anonymity" and "not-my-real-name". Most people on the Internet are probably not anonymized by their screennames/handles/nicks/whatever-the-kids-call-them-now because they work hard to integrate that online identity across services. It is a real, tangible identity even though it is completely separate from the physical person.
We shouldn't underestimate the value of that identity, or of stepping outside the identities we have in the working world. Some people would rather be known totally and solely as the guy who posts funny stuff to Reddit and contributes to open source projects, not as the 34 year-old IT worker who gets yelled at every morning by a boss he hates.
- notatoad 15y agothe important thing about pseudonymity is that it is transient. if, an hour from now, i decide i want to be sex_girl_69, i can do that and you're not going to know that's the same person as me. i can always come back to being notatoad again tomorrow. you only have one real identity, and it is forever. a pseudonym might be a completely functional identity and just as real as your legal name, but the point is that it has a degree of freedom that you will never have with an identity built around a legal name.
- shawndumas 15y agois not-a-toad from kipper?
- notatoad 15y agono, i don't know what that is.
- shawndumas 15y agohttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kipper_the_dog http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kipper_the_dog
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- deleted 15y ago[deleted]
- Swizec 15y agoOn the internet ... yes it will. The freedom is simply there. Hell, even in the real world you have all this freedom. When I introduce myself as Swizec in real life, nobody questions anymore whether that's my legal real name or not. They just take it that that's what they are supposed to call me. Pseudonymity is a much more real concept than people are willing to admit to themselves. In fact, at this very instance, everybody in the world is pseudonymous. Most just choose not to exercise this freedom.
- reidmain 15y agoWhy do you suppose more people on the Internet choose to exercise this right then in real-life? I had never considered that the level of pseudonymity available on the Internet is available in real-life as well. Really the only thing that the real-life has which you can't change would be your DNA.
- bricestacey 15y agoIn real life you can maintain pseudymity by just never exposing your identity. This happens all the time, much more often than the Internet (e.g. As I type this under a tree by the road of my uni, no one knows who I am and yet my nick here absolutely identifies me).
- reidmain 15y agoBecause you are being so open about it why do you feel you need to use a nick in real-life? A lot conversations for this story seem to have focused on the concept of permanence with a nickname. If you use the same nickname across a multitude of services then you've created a "real" identity. I'm trying to understand peoples reasoning for this. To me there seems to be two prevalent reasons: 1) You want your single identity to be under a name you choose, not have it be forced upon you like you real name was. 2) You want to maintain a multitude of identities each with a specific purpose.
- esrauch 15y agoReally? When I introduce myself people often ask if it is actually my real name with a lot of doubt in their voice, and my name is a lot less crazy than "swizec".