To Pseudonym or Not to Pseudonym (Or: Why I Use the User ID I Do)

(Note: This is about what name I choose to use for various accounts/sites online, not for what name I choose to write/be published under.)

When I first found the internet in the late 1990s, I didn’t want my name out there. I didn’t want people to know who I was. At the time, I barely let people know I was a writer.

That, obviously, has changed. People know I write. They know I have had things published.

Sometimes they even look for me.

That is the main reason I use a version of my name as my user ID on sites like Twitter, LinkedIn, Plurk, etc.

There is a marketing strategy used among many professions, but seems most common among writers, of transparency. You make no effort to hide who you are or what you do. You’re open and honest about yourself, your business, and what you do.

That’s what I try to do.

There’s another reason, too, though. From time to time, disagreements crop up on the Internet, as in life in general. But there is a key difference.

On the Internet, you can use a pseudonym for your user ID. You don’t have to use your actual name. Because of that, it’s easy to hide from what you say. You don’t have to take ownership of what you have said and can pretend it didn’t happen.

In life, you can’t do that.

I generally don’t go to places where such things are common practice, but eventually, wherever I go, things are bound to happen that cause disagreements and confrontations on some level.

This is my name. I have to take responsibility for what I say. I can’t hide behind a pseudonym.

That’s another reason I use a version of my name online. It keeps me honest with myself as well as with whoever might read what I write.