A Case for Pseudonyms

Honestly I have never given it much thought to pseudonyms, so reading this article was interesting because it makes you reflect on things that you usually do not put much thought into. Personally, I am very cautious with the things that I post on the internet for my own safety and that of my friends and family. I remember that years ago when Facebook was just starting all of my friends kept talking about it and they asked me to open a Facebook account many times; at first I did not want to because I did not feel comfortable sharing my personal information online. After a while I ended up opening my Facebook account, and yes I used my real name, but I am not the kind of person that posts their location, where they work, and almost their every single move, because it is not safe to do that; I have heard stories of people that end up getting kidnapped because they shared too much information online. Therefore, I agree with Molly’s suggestion, I do believe that it is crucial to enforce policies that state that users must sing in with their real names but I think that users should be able to select their screen names; that way people can express their views freely, maintain their privacy and at the same time their actions can be traceable when needed. I also believe that when reading an article or a posting from an individual that selected a colorful or funny pseudonym it does make you second-guess the credibility of the information. When finding pseudonyms like that I choose to check other sites and make sure that the information is accurate.