I’ve been thinking about Wally down at the plant. In anonymity he has found the solution to a problem that has been troubling me. All kinds of work issues have surfaced over the last five years, issues that I generally avoided blogging. Who wants to get dooced?
I’ve had a rough go around the whole issue of anonymity because I think we should all be brave and honest and strong. A pseudonym is self-protective at best. Since I feel a need to know the “real” identity of those with whom I converse, I have been open about who I am. But lately I’ve felt less open and honest because I am afraid of what open expression of certain opinions might do to my reputation, my livelihood.
When I think of all the topics I might explore, the whistles I might blow and the mean-spirited criticisms I might throw, I almost think it’s time to disappear into the fog bank of anonymous blogging. Certainly my art wouldn’t suffer. I might even discover where I belong.
I think “Wally” is a fine writer, and I could swear I’ve run across his work on the Web somewhere else.
Thanks for the link, Frank — even though it goes to the initial post where (I’m told) I misspelled the title slug. Some people are so picky!
Nothing to bang your little head about, Kat…
and Bruce, I agree, I’ve seen Wally somewhere before too.
Frank,
The issue of anonymity and blogging is pretty important to me… Personally, I find anonymity to be liberating.
I don’t have to worry about someone googling my name and being influenced by my political views
when I interview for a job. My name is unique enough that I would be concerned about that. Lately, I’ve blogged from work and appreciated the anonymous protection that affords me.
But the labeling of anonymous as cowardly behavior seems odd to me. I can enjoy and realte to the writing of an authentic voice if it’s labeled “Moosejaw” just as well as someone I’ll never meet named Syd Milhouse. If “Moosejaw” is open and honest in his writing I don’t see the harm in adopting a pseudonym and restraining from over disclosing a lot of personal detail.
For me… blogging is about ideas… ideas is a big messy conversation. The actual details of the people are not all that critical to me.
When someone comes onto my blog and tells me I’m an idiot becuase I disclose some character defect it’s also a lot easier to take if I know that there’s no personal aspect about me that’s influenced that opinion.
Of course, I have limited asperations for my blogging efforts and I tend to delete my efforts and lately I’ve just not wanted to blog from work at all… so there’s almost no blog.
But, I’ve always believed the best blogging is improvised and that rules need not be applied… by the writer OR the reader. The benefit is in the process: who we are and what we think about each other is often a dtriment to improved conversation.
Frankly, Frank, I think you blog with such prudence I can’t imagine it impacting your professional life… with the possible exception of you political writing. Politics can always offend someone.
The best bloggers document themselves in ways that go far beyond the details of their employment application. They lay the inner workings of a real human out for the world to discover.
And choosing a name is often a lot more illumintaing than the one you are given.
I do hope that the right to anonymity gains some traction in the b-verse because it opens the door to more participation and for a blogger to use levels of candor that they might never use with complete disclosure… and that increases the value of the media for a larger audience.
The most violent reactions I’ve had to my anonity have come from the most profound bullies
on the net… and I’ve also written at some length about such bullies… and been advised
to do less of that. So, I have. Poking bullies, anonymously, just primes them to hurt someone else closer at hand.
Poking bullies with complete disclosure opens the door for retaliation that exceeds the infraction.