So yesterday I read a really interesting post by B.E. Earl. While two parts of the post dealt with coincidences and using profanity in blog posts (which longtime readers will know I support whole heartedly), the third part (which was really the first part) dealt with the whole blogging anonymously/publicly debate. The story that still comes to mind for me is the whole Kathy Sierra incident that happened almost a year ago…
Pretty scary stuff, right? I don’t think anyone starts out blogging and thinks they may be the target of either death threats or photo-shopped S&M style pictures. I don’t believe that bloggers who choose to blog anonymously, such as myself, are hiding themselves or are cowards. I don’t believe that bloggers who choose to blog as themselves are overly egotistical and narcissistic, commonly referred to as attention whores, in search of that “internet famous” status. I DO believe… nay… I KNOW there are people out there who serve no purpose other than to troll on other people. I know one such person… and what’s worse… I know them in real life.
As an example of what this person does, he goes onto the SocialMoth application on Facebook and leaves nasty replies to the people who are anonymously pouring out their souls. Of course, he’s anonymous as well, so that suits him just fine… because he is not being held accountable for his words which, when read, will have an affect on the people reading them. We know that this happens, because if reading words did not affect people, then why would we blog? One of our primary reasons for spewing forth so many letters in sequence is to affect someone… anyone… and receiving a comment is a simple acknowledgment that we have… which is why we do indeed cherish those comments whether they are bad or good… subconsciously or not. Yes… being anonymous can embolden us to speak cruelly to others whereas we may not do so if we were so easily identified. However, in theory, it protects us from these types of people who intend to do harm to our self-esteem and emotional state.
Another thing that he likes to do, in an attempt to attack me personally, is he will mention the URL of this very blog out loud in rooms filled with people. Occasionally, he mentions it to people who I have written about on this blog. Considering that I am for all intense purposes blogging anonymously, then shouldn’t I have shrieked, run from the room, and pressed delete on everything you see before you in an attempt to preserve that? I could have. Some people will undoubtedly think I should have. Yet, I didn’t for the very simple reason that although I go by one name during the day in the physical world, and then in the proverbial night by my moniker of NYC Watchdog in the blogosphere/cyber world/ethereal reality… I really am the same person. I am not ashamed of who I am either there nor here. I think if anything, my understanding of who I am is better than it was before I ever started this, and for that reason alone I would not quit.
The fact is that there are people out there who thrive on the infliction of pain upon others. Why they enjoy this so much? Well… that’s a theory for another post… but I will say that I think every blogger knows their own strength and their own limitations. If blogging as yourself because of the evils that men will do against their fellow man willing to express themselves would stop you from blogging at all… then blogging anonymously is more than acceptable to me. In fact, it becomes a necessity.
In the end, just be safe out here.
