3 ms·
Why 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
by reidmain 15y ago
Why 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.