Many world-renowned authors have used pen names, perhaps to maintain their novelty, for security or just for convenience’s sake. Swedish journalist Karl Stig-Erland Lars published bestsellers like The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo as Stieg Larsson. The author altered his name, but MacMaster lied about his identity in order to fabricate authenticity to the tales he was spinning – however reality-based or how well-meaning his blog may have been. Exposed and ridiculed, he had not committed any legal crimes (though some would say it was a moral crime of gross proportions to mislead thousands of readers) but assuming a voice that did not rightfully belong to him wrecked havoc to his credibility.
Since the Internet spread its tentacles from cyber cafes and household desktops back in the 1990s to personal laptops and smart phones in more recent years, the culture of adopting an alias has taken a whole new turn. This phenomenon spiraled so subtly that there has been little consideration as to what it means and what is to be done, if anything at all.
What the un-anonymous Sasha Fierce is to Beyonce and perhaps the music industry, an entire population is to the sovereign state of the Federal Republic of the Internet where dedicated masses craft alter egos that are absolutely anonymous. As publishing material, be it blogs on worpress.com or videos on youtube.com, can be done anonymously, so can the flood of comments thereafter. The Internet has enabled the fantasy of taking on a different persona from being just that - a fantasy, to a reality where creating pseudonyms is now the norm.
Today many urbanites (in physical locality or mindscape) have assumed an alias for themselves, to use and abuse all over the fascinating and relatively ungoverned world of the Internet. One only has to peruse the endless stream of blogs that are hosted by genuine, masked or completely fabricated characters. Comments on these blogs will often lead to the most brutish of words smeared and maintained on digital archives.
Since the Internet spread its tentacles from cyber cafes and household desktops back in the 1990s to personal laptops and smart phones in more recent years, the culture of adopting an alias has taken a whole new turn. This phenomenon spiraled so subtly that there has been little consideration as to what it means and what is to be done, if anything at all.
Just a few months of sharing my opinion on the opinion page here has taught me those that appreciate my articles will send me a personal email. Thereby, fully and willingly disclosing their name and at times would have it, their workplace too. Others that think I am wasting Republica’s prime real estate prefer to express their discontent by posting comments online, usually anonymously.
Without suggesting these anonymous online commenters are abusing the system, let me say that at a recent Martin Chautari media based discussion, a young man raised this very point. As he expressed his horror at the language used to comment on various online platforms, we all knew exactly what he was talking about. After all, it ranges from liberal use of obscene words to defamatory content where users comment simply out of spite – perhaps for an ego boost of some twisted sort.
Yet, many of us that have birthed and nurtured altogether fabricated characters also do so to be safe. We were tweens when the Internet took over the world and the no-more-experienced adults did constantly suggested we “be careful.”
Wisely so, since in the close-knit (euphemism for nosey) community that we call our homeland we don’t want our parents blamed or employers privy to our online activities. Because freedom of thought is a precious commodity quickly corrupted, protecting one’s identity is crucial. Some of us might use fake names to get away with saying whatever we want (however we want, choosing even the most crass of languages) to communicate our sentiments without being reprimanded.
Both reasons are the same really - to avoid responsibility (and at times, credibility) for our thoughts in the various fonts that may go viral. The founder of the famous Alcoholics Anonymous expressed it eloquently when in 1946 he wrote, “Anonymity is the spiritual foundation of all our [AA] traditions, ever reminding us to place principles before personalities.”
Whether to be absolutely malicious or to find a safe place to divulge honest thoughts and feelings, writing with a pseudonym forces readers to judge the writer on what they have written rather than judge the writing based on who the writer is. Of course with chat-room names like “Suicidal1996” it’s pretty evident our chat buddy is a depressed teenager. However, the subtler forms of “Raj” or “CollegeKid” allow little room to imagine their caste (as in the former) and their gender (as in the latter).
When entirely fallacious Facebook accounts are created or blog pseudonyms nurtured or fake names used to comment on sites like youtube and Republica, the writer does so obviously because they prefer to refrain from divulging their true identity. Clearly the desire to safeguard their thoughts from being resorted to as evidence in any context or point in the future (seeing as the longevity and trace-ability of content on the Internet is more impressive than public records) makes sense. The longing to have the reader focus on the comment rather than the commenter, particularly in the case of Nepal where who’s son went to which school and is dating whom is perceived a clear giveaway of what the writer would and would not say, is also logical.
And yet, the Internet-safeguarded anonymity is used as much as abused. From potty-mouth language to sheer hate-rants left behind as “comments,” abuse online is prevalent. Moderators that approve or trash content and comments exist, but there is little means to regulate and legislate the obscenities expressed in much of cyber space. Perhaps there need not be.
A particularly philosophical friend once pointed out he thought it a non-issue to have crude language online. He saw it as the writer and commenter’s prerogative. It is easy to see how those that use the most obscene of languages and content eventually pay the price or earn the reputation they seek.
Visits to favorite sites mean all of us are familiar with whose thoughts, anonymous or not, we find thought provoking and worth our time and whose essay-long hate speech is just childish. The gay girl sans bearded American has become all but irrelevant. And, that is perhaps the biggest price to pay in being anonymous, when one’s identity is revealed or when the content is collectively considered bogus.
sradda.thapa@gmail.com
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