Hello,
I'm Mervi Eskelinen!
An artist, nerd and sorcerer, dedicated to make world softer and better for everyone, and to get you to make more art. Make art, change the world!
Being anonymous
Facebook is infamous of forcing the use of real names. Recently they started to ask people to snitch on their friends for not using real names. Great, isn't it?
Online anonymity is a difficult subject. Lots of people are using the possibility of being anonymous in order to do harm to others and to act otherwise badly. Especially those who don't understand the online realms are taking advantage of anonymity and on the other hand are scared about it. For them anonymity is same as lying.
The reality is that (forced) usage of real identities has never stopped people from bullying or doing other unpleasant things online or offline. Yes, it may stop some awful cowards. But it's not an answer to most of the problems people are creating online.
Deceiving others may be slightly easier if you are anonymous. However it's not that hard to pretend, lie and even do evil when the other person knows your real name or face. I'm sure everyone has in some point of their life, online and offline, been fooled, bullied and even worse by someone who's identity they knew.
I don't appreciate imposters, those who pretend to be someone else than they are. For instance on Twitter there are lots of fake accounts pretending to be celebrities and as long as they don't reveal being joke accounts, it's no cool. But that's a whole different thing.
Those of us who have been social online before the term social media had been coined are used to anonymity. For us online anonymity is a norm. There were (and are) no user profiles on IRC and on Usenet groups the identity of a person can be impossible to obtain. Internet is based on trust and your own judgment and common sense.
Yes, I do use my real name here and there and I'm okay adding my real identity to all sorts of stuff. Even if my real identity wasn't that clear everywhere, the "real" me would be (at least usually) very easy to find out. Still I respect the anonymity of you who have chosen that path. You have your reasons, like I have mine.
Actually I have made some good friends who were or still are mostly anonymous to me. I may know some things about them, but I don't know their real names or even real faces. And that's fine. It's their choice.
I believe it's a choice, as long as no-one is being harmed. Anonymity isn't the problem. The problem are those who forget they are dealing with other human beings and those who exploit any system and any people they can. Quite frankly they are a problem offline as well.
This is a reader supported blog without paywalls and advertisement. If you appreciate my work and want to help me rewild the internet, please consider becoming a free or paid patron today. I can't do this without the support of readers like you. So if you can to contribute financially, I would really appreciate your help.
