Handles and Anonymity

[womzilla]

In the recent discussions of psuedonyms and anonymity, I haven't seen anyone mention what I think of as one of the best reasons for using a handle: distinction.

There are at least a dozen other Kevin Maroneys in the United States; I bet there are a couple dozen more in County Claire (the ancestral home of the Maroney name). As nearly as I can tell, I'm the only Womzilla anywhere in the world. Thus, when I create a user account at one of the many fragmented pools into which online discussion pours, I just grab womzilla and go with it. It makes it easy for people to recognize me-in-particular, and it's very portable.

That might be obvious, but I haven't seen it discussed, so I'm just tossing it in to the discussion. Nothing to see here; move along.

(I'm continuing to recover from the surgery. I no longer come home completely exhausted every night. Yay my nose.)

ETA: Of course, as soon as I hit "post entry", I see a comment by anton_p_nym that makes much the same point. And correcting some editing errors. Sigh. More tired than I thought.

Comments

[spuffyduds.livejournal.com]

Yeah! Although my real name is not terribly, terribly common, still when I google it I get a (sadly very boring) folksinger--male; a bassist in a metal band in California (male); and a rugby player in Ireland (female), among others.

Fun as it is to contemplate life as a transgendered bassist, I like it that when I google my handle, everything that comes up is actually me-related.

Another thing I like about handles: most names are done TO you, birth names by parents and nicknames by relatives and friends. On occasion you can make a break--going off to college and dropping that "Tootsie-muffin" your dad saddled you with, frinstance. But you can't just go up to real-life friends and co-workers and announce, "Cheryl just isn't working for me anymore. Henceforth I am...MADAME AWESOMECAKES!!!" and have people actually OBEY. So, this option to create your OWN name, based on your own grownup interests, and have people CALL you by it...it's weirdly empowering.

[womzilla.livejournal.com]

I laughed so hard I startled the rats. Thank you.