Thursday 28 January 2010

Thoughts on anonymity

Blogospheratician Delicate Flower has posted an interesting question. Go read Change is in the air.

I cannot answer this conundrum of privacy vs professional exposure. I can only tell my own story…

Coming out, so to speak, as your real self online must be your own decision. I know this and you all should know it too; it is potentially dangerous. Young people take note - what is online about you now will probably remain there, somewhere, for the rest of your life and beyond. In the olden days it may just have been a newspaper report in the local rag that no one but a historian in a library archive would ever see again. Now we have Google.

I debated with myself for a long time before I set up Trousers and the blog name itself I chose as an expression of my learning process. I have been around the internet since before there was one. When I first got an email address I only knew two other people online and we were all in the same Department. It was quicker to wait till coffee break and talk to them in person.

Times changed though; newsgroups and forums (fora?) became my home for many years under a range of pseudonyms. Though what I posted under an alias was always really as myself, my own thoughts and feelings and doings. Of course I got hammered and flamed but I never assumed different personalities with the different names; I doubt I am capable of such a thing, it's hard enough just being me.

So what changed? Strangely I think the main reason was Facebook. I'd been following various blogs for ages when a family member enticed me to start a Facebook account, which I did in my own name. Very soon I began posting 'notes' or whatever in a bloggy sort of way and quickly realised that Facebook is not a medium for that kind of expression (not to me anyway). I had to move on, Trousers was born and I wanted to continue being me. I was/am prepared (by experience, I hope) for any backlash, I am sometimes very outspoken about religion for example, but so far the worst I get is Japanese porn site spam. Trousers could have evolved very differently given a different response.

Interweaved with the above is another reason for my non-anonymity. I'm getting older and I'm happy being me. Oh I've just as many failings as anyone else, more perhaps or it often feels that way, but I have come this far and there are things I have learned which I would like to share with others. Where I have my name on a scientific publication I am proud of it, I was there, I helped do that work over months or years sometimes. That was me! Anonymity was unthinkable. Similarly, when I post video clips nowadays, that's what I have been watching. When I am outspoken, that's me, it's what I think. I hope I'm strong enough for my own honesty, if not I will learn. I don't deliberately aim to be provocative (er, well, maybe sometimes) but if someone disagrees that's fine, let's discuss the point and maybe we can both learn something new.

The final reason is that we should be able to be ourselves, in all circumstances, should we wish it. If ever a Big Brother scenario comes to be it will surely involve our own compliance at some level. It may loom over all our shoulders sometimes, so turn around and beat it over the head with your keyboard. You need not be anonymous...

Stand up, speak out, be yourself - when you want to or need to.
Be Excellent to each other! - all the time.

8 comments:

delicate flower said...

Well, thanks for giving voice to that. I admit that it's nice to see the face and name behind a blog.

The voice of Delicate Flower is my real voice. I was afraid of judgment when I started and concerned about 'propriety', if you can believe that.
As I've started writing my memoir I've realized that I have to use my real name there.. the process of showing myself the proper respect and love involves owning all I am, the good and the bad. So, to not be upfront about my identity sends a conflicting message. And yet, I am still struggling with this but will have to make a decision very soon.

Andy Holroyd said...

I realise that Delicate Flower is ‘you’ and that’s why I enjoy reading your thoughts. Propriety I know well from my upbringing. An outside toilet, a tin bath in front of the (coal) fire, aunties pregnant out of wedlock, children adopted within the family (a long story), but you say nothing. I was told to say nothing sometimes. Almost like the ‘honour’ that some cultures venerate. I prefer honesty.

Good luck however things work out.

delicate flower said...

We kept pretty closed up as kids.. covering my father's alcoholism was big.. and i believe that much of my outspokenness comes as a reaction to that! I'd much rather be remembered for my honesty and openness.

I wasn't really Delicate Flower two years ago.. this has been a bit of my progress and the blog has helped inform my growth and vice versa.

dave hambidge said...

Andy, thankyou for so neatly summarising the reasons for blogging under my true name. Having lurked in blogoland I hid behind avatars, but I wanted a means to self-publish fictional work. As my fairly limited medical research publications were as Dave Hambidge, it just seemed right, and maybe someone would pick up stuff for paid syndication (I know, fantasy!)

Andy Holroyd said...

None of us are the same as we were a few years ago. I look back with a smile when I think of my own naiveté in some things. But the rush I still get when the penny drops, or the jigsaw pieces fit, is what makes life worth living.

However I could never write a memoir like yourself, because by the end of page one I'd have so many points to verify that it would take months and just go spiralling out of control. For instance: when I left school and was job hunting (aged 18) I had various forms of id, my birth certificate being one. Then Mum kindly washed my jacket.

Andy Holroyd said...

The above was for delicate flower.

Dave, it seems we are on a similar wavelength. I have nothing to self promote though (other than my own self), it just felt right.

delicate flower said...

Andy...
I'm finding the need to do a little 'explaining' here and there... I worry a little when I'm in my negative phase about how some of my 'stories' will be received. And, I'm sure that no one will explode or burst into flames so I will continue

Andy Holroyd said...

And we will be following.