http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022420695Oh my.
ellenrr (626 posts) Sun Feb 24, 2013, 07:02 AM
Am I the only one on DU who uses my real name?
36 votes, 1 pass | Time left: Unlimited
real name 16 (44%)
not real name 20 (56%)
1 DU member did not wish to select any of the options provided.
skip fox (11,861 posts) Sun Feb 24, 2013, 10:07 AM
9. I've never understood the desire (or need?) for a pseudonym of any variety.
I think my life is complex enough without a filter of some sort.
Obviously, at times it is meant for humor. What about the other times?
Asocial filter in which one attempts to shape others' thinking of you before they read your thoughts?
Or a social filter by which you can quickly make yourself known (as, say, a Barbara Jordan fan, or a Matrix-head), so that others might grasp an initial and quick sense of your essence using the rich language of popular, mythological, literary, historical, and political culture?
Or a social filter which allows one to be anonymous so that one does not bear responsibility for what is said. (Therefore one can be extraordinarily provocative, insulting, funny, childish, truthful, ot whatever, . . it needn't be negative.)
Or a psychological filter, some way of allowing one to look at him- or herself in a more favorable light, or as better than oneself (thereby calling upon "the better angels" of one's being).
Or a psychological filter to select a given perspective (self) from which to write, knowing (correctly) the self is multivalent, contradictory, wayward, etc.) and writing from such a position is more difficult than not.
Or perhaps it is in denial of the net as a significant arena for social discussion and argument. (Therefore, one "punks" the possibility of meaningful exchange.)
Anyway, all the reasons are not negative, by any shot, but the use of another name, even in the best circumstances, seems to bely one's own complexity.
Or perhaps this mannerism is just, like so much else in our society, simply unconsidered, or if considered only as much as one might "consider" his or her wallpaper for the screen this month or breakfast cereal.
(Am I being too harsh?)
etherealtruth (8,021 posts) Sun Feb 24, 2013, 10:17 AM
12. I work for a blood sucking corporate entity
Think about the three headed dog guarding the gates to hell.
Though I avoid posting anything specific about my employer or my job, I honestly believe that by merely posting on a liberal site my job could be jeopardized.
I tend to post very honestly about my life and my experience ... the information (coupled with my name or any part of my name) would be very identifying.
I would never be fired for the given reason: posting here (DU). However, one does not require a valid reason to fire an "at will" employee.
As an aside, on the rare occasions I am part of a DU mail exchange, I "sign" with my "real" name.
For the record, franksolich doesn't use his real name on the internet either; way back when the internet was brand-new, in 1995, I wanted to use my real name, but it was already taken.
However, the person in my avatar is me, in case a primitive wishes to look me up.
