Today on BoingBoing I noticed an article about a guy meeting a troll from his blog in the real world. This got me to thinking about how the net has changed since I started using it around 10 years ago. Many people in the past have lived almost completely separate lives on the internet. There are pseudonyms & handles, invented histories and even completely different personalities lurking on the net. I have a number of friends who are just completely different people online compared to offline. It’s almost as if they have technologically enabled multiple personality disorder. They’ll be quiet, affable people in person and raging trolls on the net. Signs of mental illness? Perhaps, but more signs that the arenas were different and that anonymity was really possible.
More recently, however, we’ve seen the internet growing up … changing and becoming more linked with the real world. As Matt notes, the dating scene online has absolutely blossomed — and although becoming a different person for dating purposes presumably can be very amusing, one would imagine that for many people they have to be moderately honest so that meeting in reality is still a possibility.
Additionally, as more people move online, it involves actual deceit to keep your identity secret. I have a number of friends whom I know have websites or blogs, amongst them Simon, Nat, Andy and Tristan. Since just about everyone I know in the real world (not at work, but in my circle of friends) has a blog or journal online, in order to keep their online identity secret they would have to have a “real me” blog and a “false me” blog. Kind of like Superman has to have Clark Kent as an alias for the daytime. Or is Superman the alias? Either way, quite frankly this might really be in the realms of psychosis.
What this means is that the real world and the online world are becoming closer together. As Elly noted today, computers are becoming integral to every room in the home. With the online paradigm comes much more directed personal communication, as Anil was bemoaning earlier in the week. Since almost all communication is person-centred, rather than general (there are notable exceptions covered in Anil’s post and comments), separating your real and virtual person is surely harder and harder?
Equally, can people live as their real selves online? Some people who have LiveJournals are living their entire lives, complete with minute details, frustrations and niggling doubts in full view of the public. When you might feel that you are anonymous this is much more understandable than when you realise that eventually anyone might be able to work out that insert silly handle here is actually insert actual name here … and that Google will remember.
On the other hand, some people do write online with their own names (two examples), but without too many personal details. Although this might seem a sensible approach, Google can still come back to bite you from the past. My parents found out that I spoke at Bath City Council for the proposal to introduce a civil partnership register (not that I was hiding it from them, it just didn’t come up) by googling my name. A ridiculously old website of mine (my first attempt, done in Frontpage, to my shame) comes up somewhere in Google associated with my name because a friend of mine has linked to it with my real name against the link.
I’m not too bothered, but then my indiscretions have not been extreme. Imagine a current teenager however, putting their first site online (possibly with their real name) at 14. All the growing pains, the trials and tribulations, detailed and shared. Skip forward ten years to a job interview where the interviewer has googled his or her name and found this old site. Will we need legislation to prevent discrimination based on past history on the internet?
Bit of a ramble, but the ideas intrigued me and seemed to keep meandering down different routes. I’d love people’s opinions of this and to understand how they approach their posting online and anything previous that they might be ashamed of now.
UPDATE: Found this blog survey essentially about these issues which I will fill in sometime and possibly the rest of you could help and do so too 🙂
Comments (8) Permalink
January 14th, 2004 at 7:08 PM
I have different policies depending on the forum:
On Sharp Blue, I’ll mostly only post things that I think might be interesting to at least some random strangers. There have been some more personal things posted there on occasion, but I don’t really see the point in having a “Today, I had toast for breakfast” style of weblog. I suppose my main aim is to attempt to influence people in some way: to exert leverage on the future. Sometimes I’m tempted to let Sharp Blue in its main and Livejournal incarnations diverge by posting more often to the latter and keeping the higher quality stuff on the former, but I’m not sure I have the time really.
One thing that I won’t ever do is make comments that are associated with people’s names in such a way that they could be found by Google. For example, a while ago I posted about how utterly disappointed I was in the way I was treated by a friend, but I was very careful not to use his name – for to do so would be to make that post come up whenever anyone googled for him. Regardless of how annoyed I am with someone, acting in any way other than this seems to me to be deeply unethical. (Clearly this doesn’t apply if I’m commenting on something that someone has already chosen to publish to the Web!)
On the Culture List, I tend to be freer with my opinions, more prone to talking about personal matters or asking for advice, and more argumentative. The list isn’t being archived anywhere, so I’m not worried about things being found by Google, and even if they were it would be obvious to everyone (I hope) that they’re intended to be ephemeral. I’ve certainly said some things without thinking that I wish I could erase!
January 15th, 2004 at 11:23 AM
I think the conundrum with certain people is that most DO want their real name appearing with their website, particularly if it is already on their “About” page. I know in particular, that Simon, Nat, Elly and I are all very proud of where we appear on the Google search results for our first names. The main issue is when someone doesn’t necessarily want their name associated with their website THROUGH YOU, because that will give their identity away somehow.
I think that it’s quite difficult to always respect people’s separation of online and offline life, particularly when various people have very different ideas about it and priorities for it.
January 15th, 2004 at 12:02 PM
You just prompted me to google for “Rich”, and I found I’m on the third page of hits. My aim, though, is to be the number one “Richard Baker” on Google…
January 15th, 2004 at 1:09 PM
One place where having a bit of a strange name helps … I’m now top for both Meri and Meri Williams. Used to be on around page 13 though, so the blog really helps! 😉
January 15th, 2004 at 3:04 PM
I’ve had unexpected to and fro between my blogging and ecommerce.
Some of my online friends have made it a point to check and see if we have a book they want before searching elsewhere.
A few customers curious about the shop have searched Google for the shop’s name and found my weblogs. In a couple of cases that has led to satisfying exchanges about interests we have in common.
Probably the biggest benefit of blogging under my real name has been hearing either from or about people I haven’t seen in many years.
I’m not worried about Google outing me in any way. But I have had two commentors ask that I delete their comments because of unexpected results. One left a foolish comment that was found by some places where he’d applied to work.
January 23rd, 2004 at 12:45 AM
Yes, I find it a real shame I have to be careful what I write in my blog. I can’t state enough how careful I am.
In my first month on placement I mentioned the name of a trader who had been quite demanding to me at work. Six months later I got an email from an old friend of his who’d Googled for his name. I put the two of them back in contact but risked seriously having offended the trader’s privacy and anonymity by mentioning him online.
Also, more recently I gave a nickname to one of my team mates at work – Isaac ‘vice’ Varghese after he smoked cigars like a gangster at a firm social. He’s the nicest and most traditionally Indian chap.. and when he found my site by googling his name, he put up a comment asking me what I meant by ‘vice’… which, literally, means, ‘morally offensive.’ The joke was lost in translation. I hope I haven’t offended him.
Yes, it’s a tricky game, making your thoughts public. Where do you draw the line of political correctness?
Interesting entries on your site, btw, I enjoyed looking through it.
March 22nd, 2004 at 9:53 AM
My blog is only there to inform family and friends about how I am now that I’ve moved to Manila – it saves me emailing loads of people the same stuff over and over. So it’s very much like ‘yes I’ve found an apartment, yes I made some friends’. But the reason I’m here is because I have a job here and I travel a lot with work so people want to know about the countries I’m going to and the work I’m doing. I have to be really careful not to offend anyone in those countries or indeed any of my friends and colleagues here as some of them will surely one day end up working out that I have a blog and having a good read! I posted a story I was told by my boss about being offered lots to eat and drink in a certain country only to decide to take it down again after a friend who’d worked there warn me that the locals would actually find it puzzling if not offensive to be described as offering their guests ‘too much’ hospitality…
January 15th, 2004 at 5:06 PM
Important Notice
I will not be renewing procrastination.ws when it expires in March. Please visit productive.sichunlam.com from March 2004. A new blog will be set up some time. =) Hostees – since I will probably be very busy during March, I plan…