Co-workers, classmates, dates, friends, just about everyone really. But what’s surprising is how little information this reveals. Well, maybe it’s not so surprising when the cute blond from the bar’s name only reveals her facebook page, but what about people you know create stuff. Why does that awesome Rails developer from work’s name not reveal all the great sites he’s done. What about the guitar player from the coffee shop who always plays wonderfully. I know their names why can’t I find all the cool stuff they do.
Well, the reason is simple. Most of you are probably thinking the reason is totally obvious, but that’s because you’re guilty of it as well. The great guitar player uses the name FenderDude420 for everything he does on the web. The Rails programmer’s stackoverflow screen name is PuddingSoup……What the hell?
It’s not that I don’t appreciate a good nickname, but the Internet is now the main source of communication in the world and you want people to be able to find you. Anyone who only uses their first name and last initial on Facebook, or doesn’t put their name on their blog, or uses a nickname for any account on any site is defeating the purpose.
That’s right I said it. They are defeating the purpose of the Internet.
Either they are not proud of what they say and do or they are paranoid.
Tony Crimaldi
November 19, 2009 at 8:54 am
You are right on with this point, Joe. It amazes me that there are as many people as there are who don’t get it.
Randy B
November 19, 2009 at 4:01 pm
I’m going to go with paranoid, at least in my case. I started off having a homepage with more information than anyone would ever want to know about me but after 15 years on the net I’ve come to recognize the immutability and the immortality of content. The risque jokes I emailed around in college? The poorly worded and punctuated questions about Linux when I was in high school? All immortalized for past, current and future friends, colleagues, employers, anyone. I’ve taken to not only using a pseudonym but multiple pseudonyms depending on the context. There’s a difference between producing content for the world and producing content for friends to me for this reason.
It’s probably one of those things that is yet another generational variance especially for folks who began their net life with MySpace, Facebook, Twitter and the like where sharing every detail with friends and strangers alike was/is commonplace. It’s the latest evolution of writing notes to your best friend on what you did over the weekend although now instead of discretely passed slips of paper during class its scrawled on billboards in mile high lettering for all to see.
For me, my level of pride in what I’ve done doesn’t restrict my willingness to share with the entire unfiltered world nearly as much as my reservations of wearing my heart on my sleeve.