More than once have I blogged under a pseudonym. I wasn’t ashamed of what I was writing or who I was, I just felt that I would have more freedom to write without having my real self attached to that particular blog. None of the blogs exist anymore. I don’t remember what my reasons were at the time, but I do remember that I never really had the sense of freedom I was searching for. I think I thought I did at the time, but my memories now are that I wasn’t really being myself or stating my mind. I was using the anonymity to be someone else entirely – taking one element of my personality and amplifying it into an entire new persona. It wasn’t using anonymity to be authentic, it was 90% fiction.
The coming-out stories of anonymous bloggers was posted over at CNN today. It’s an interesting article, sort of covering the risks and/or benefits associated with other people’s experiences with suddenly not being anonymous bloggers any more. I feel for PittGirl (aka Virginia Montanez), who lost her job after coming out before she had her veil ripped away without her permission. But from what I read, she took the only route she had. I don’t know if there’s anything worse than not taking control of a bad situation before someone else does it for you.
Also in the artcile, Jeanne Devon who blogs on The Mudflats was quoted as saying:
“There are things that you know, or that you feel sort of in your heart of hearts, that you might not want to put out there in a public way with your name attached”, she said. “If people always spoke without filters, we’d learn a lot more.”
I agree and disagree. Yes, if people spoke without filters we would absolutely learn more – about them, about everything. But are the things we learn things we really need to know? If you’re posting anonymously and suddenly you have the nerve to bash your boss, does that help your readers? Us? You? I’m not convinced.
I’m not writing anonymously this time because I need that filter that Jeanne Devon seems interested in doing without. You aren’t going to learn anything about me that will A) be likely to get me fired, B) burn your corneas and make you retch with horror, or C) violate a law. But as an anonymous blogger in the past, I have let slip things I came to regret. Poorly formed opinions. Statements made in anger. Stories that aren’t anyone’s business but my own. Even just regular things that weren’t quite TMI at 20, but at 30, are.
So rest assured, here you get me – Nicki, formerly known as Nicole (*twitch*). Now…to go create my About page. Doh!