The Dangers of Anonymity?
Apr. 8th, 2008 06:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
franceslievensIn Chronicle Careers Peter Plagens argues against anonymous blogging for academics. He doesn't really understand why academics think the columns they write in the same place he's writing his critique of the practice should use a pseudonym. It's not like writing these things would actually harm their career, is it?
I don't know about academics. ProfGrrrrl has some interesting things to say about them on her blog. In fact, some of the things she says do apply to non-academic bloggers. For one, I don't want to be googled. I write sensitive information on the internet about superiors and about my pupils. I firmly believe that the things I write might possibly get me a reprimand of some sorts, would they ever be found out. Hence the pseudonym. Whoever googles my real name will come up with nothing. I don't have a Facebook account; I Skype pseudonymously. As far as the internet's concerned: the name on my ID is practically non-existent.
Frances Lievens on the other hand has built a nice little online world for herself. The blog isn't that high-profile you can find it by simply googling for my pseudonym. Because of comments I leave at higher ranked blogs Frances does end up in google queries. I don't mind it that much. If an acquaintance from real life would unmask Frances, because he found my LJ through comments left on other blogs, this acquaintance would probably be okay with blogging in the first place. Fact is, by the way, that Frances is such a bland name as a pseudonym that you're unable to find me if that's all you have to go on.
I've been talking about Frances like she's this other person, but how does one talk about her pseudonym? Frances is as big a part of me as Real Life Person is. Maybe she's even a more integrated piece of me, than Miss Frances the teacher for instance – as ProfGrrrrl argues. Blogging pseudonymously, but publicly, can be a way to reclaim your personality, your identity. Viewed like this, it isn't about hiding yourself, but about showing yourself without fearing the repercussions. Pseudonymously you have the possibility to show pieces of yourself you'd probably censor out would every colleague be able to google your name and find your blog. I do have lots of respect for people like Derek K. MIller. He blogs openly about his life. He calls it "having the online privacy of a 17 year old", but without the emo-drama I'd add.
Derek is a man, though. It is very clear that blogging men don't attract the crazy-assed sexist comments full of vitriol women bloggers get – especially when they "out" themselves as women bloggers. In the comments to ProfGrrrrl's original post Physioprof links to his own two cents on the matter. We've all heard the stories, or even witnessed them, of online harassment and stalking. He sums it up nicely when he talks about Plagens commenting on other blogs criticising his piece:
I don't know about academics. ProfGrrrrl has some interesting things to say about them on her blog. In fact, some of the things she says do apply to non-academic bloggers. For one, I don't want to be googled. I write sensitive information on the internet about superiors and about my pupils. I firmly believe that the things I write might possibly get me a reprimand of some sorts, would they ever be found out. Hence the pseudonym. Whoever googles my real name will come up with nothing. I don't have a Facebook account; I Skype pseudonymously. As far as the internet's concerned: the name on my ID is practically non-existent.
Frances Lievens on the other hand has built a nice little online world for herself. The blog isn't that high-profile you can find it by simply googling for my pseudonym. Because of comments I leave at higher ranked blogs Frances does end up in google queries. I don't mind it that much. If an acquaintance from real life would unmask Frances, because he found my LJ through comments left on other blogs, this acquaintance would probably be okay with blogging in the first place. Fact is, by the way, that Frances is such a bland name as a pseudonym that you're unable to find me if that's all you have to go on.
I've been talking about Frances like she's this other person, but how does one talk about her pseudonym? Frances is as big a part of me as Real Life Person is. Maybe she's even a more integrated piece of me, than Miss Frances the teacher for instance – as ProfGrrrrl argues. Blogging pseudonymously, but publicly, can be a way to reclaim your personality, your identity. Viewed like this, it isn't about hiding yourself, but about showing yourself without fearing the repercussions. Pseudonymously you have the possibility to show pieces of yourself you'd probably censor out would every colleague be able to google your name and find your blog. I do have lots of respect for people like Derek K. MIller. He blogs openly about his life. He calls it "having the online privacy of a 17 year old", but without the emo-drama I'd add.
Derek is a man, though. It is very clear that blogging men don't attract the crazy-assed sexist comments full of vitriol women bloggers get – especially when they "out" themselves as women bloggers. In the comments to ProfGrrrrl's original post Physioprof links to his own two cents on the matter. We've all heard the stories, or even witnessed them, of online harassment and stalking. He sums it up nicely when he talks about Plagens commenting on other blogs criticising his piece:
The existence of weird creepy wackaloons like Plagens trolling around the Internet looking for people “criticizing” them proves exactly the point he seeks to debunk. Like I, or any other blogger, want some wacked out freak like that to know where I live? It’s exactly these kinds of loonie weirdos who are obsessed with knowing “who” everyone is that we need pseudonymy to avoid.There are crazy people out there, and yes women still get more crap chucked over them for saying certain things that would have been plausible and well-accepted had they been men saying them. And I'm not only speaking about the blogging-world or the internet. Here they only do it more openly, because we can all leave anonymous comments. Then why shouldn't a person, who chooses to let people comment from the safe environment of anonymity or pseudonymity, be able to choose the same safety for herself? In this world the default persons are still men. It's a sad truth that causes some people to equal identification of oneself as a female to identification of oneself as a sex-object.
