On blogging pseudoanonymously
Chutney is blogging about the perils of blogging under a pseudonym, using the metaphor of superheros and their identities. It’s a question that I haven’t given much thought to myself, since my name is available on my home page.
For me, blogging under my real name (Colleen Keating, in case you’re curious) provides benefits that a pseudonym would not. Below, four reasons why I blog transparently.
1. As an aspiring academic, I hope that my blog (and links to my writing) gives me some visibility and also acts as a networking tool. There are some people whose interests overlap with mine who I might never have “met” were it not for this blog.
2. Because the genre here is “professional”, knowing that my name is attached to the contents makes me think twice before hitting publish. I have the ability to instantaneously make my opinion known to the world with a single click. Erasing that opinion is very difficult. I’ve made mistakes here–I blogged a year or two ago about some family issues, in the context of religion–but on the whole, it’s made me be cautious with my words.
3. That caution, which initially arises out of sheer pragmatism (I don’t want my words to come back and haunt me!) extends to my thinking. The phenomenon of “blog-think”, for better or worse, is real. My mind seems to use external tools like this blog as part of its processing network. I’d rather have those kinds of built in safeguards extend out to my life than risk becoming like a blog alter-ego.
4. If you want to push the superhero metaphor, I’d take up the image of Batman as a good illustration (few of us can fly or shoot webs in real life, but Batman is a regular guy who has cool stuff). I’m not a comic book aficianado, but isn’t it the case that the Dark Knight persona is one that can be destructive to Bruce Wayne? Its hard to keep the two separate. If my blogger persona were a snide, catty critic who spent her days pointing out what is wrong with the Religious Right, and how they are a bunch of morons…how soon do you think it would be until that became my offline attitude?
Sure, there are benefits to pseudonymity, especially if you have a very public position. But I’m a big fan of transparency. If you don’t want your name attached to it, I have to wonder why not? And I think that is a good question to answer explicitly on a weblog (and in your own mind) before signing up for that Blogger account and hitting publish.