i'm not referring to the smell of roses

Okay, for the record, if one more person trots out a sweetly naive statement about how real names make you nicer and improve accountability, please for the love of God actually learn what the internet is (hint: it requires actually getting on it and not theorizing about it). Once that has been achieved, go to Facebook--I'm assuming you can find it--and look at what all those real names actually do, what groups they make--under their names--and what they say--again, under their names.

IRL we do shitty things under our real names. If empathy and accountability are supposed to be synonymous with real names, then your understanding of the history of the human race is fatally goddamn flawed.

I'm not going to defend pseudonymity by making arguments about all the reasons why someone would or should or could or needs to; no one should have to, since that's what life is.

We live IRL pseudonymity all the time; my son, my parents, my coworkers, my boss all use different variations of my name, my title, my salutation, some pieces of which will never show up on a driver's license or government record, and yet, somehow, the internet claims a higher fucking authority than the parents who raised me, the child I am raising, my boss, my minister, my best friend, my sisters, my aunt, my friends, my classmates, people I meet at clubs, people I meet in other countries, and what I call myself?

To clarify: google+ requires a higher level of disclosure than my actual honest to God real life. And it requires I give that to everyone, ever, in perpetuity.

Are. You. Serious?

I'm not so much wondering if anyone arguing Real Names for All has ever been to the internet, but exactly how you navigate real life at all.

Crossposted to Google+ and DW

Comments

[clari-clyde.livejournal.com]

On a more cynical note, maybe “accountable actions” is double-speak for “easier to market to.”

[tricksterquinn.livejournal.com]

...the actual FUCK? Link me to this BS?

[phoenix4.livejournal.com]

And that is the reason why I am not on Facebook and very likely will not be on Google+. My boss and my mother have no need to know what kind of fiction I like; I do have a need to keep my job and my relationships. Ergo, pseudonym. Never mind that I've used the same pseud for practically my whole online existence, and it wouldn't be hard for a dedicated hacker to find my real name. I see no reason to make it as easy as Google wants it to be though.

I was reading a few of the message boards about people who had their accounts (including their Gmail accounts) suspended because some bot thought their real name was made up. Google's suggestion? Email the support team your driver's license to prove your name really is spelled that way. No Fucking Way. I do not need your social media marketing machine that badly.

[verizonhorizon.livejournal.com]

I will never join Google+ for this reason.

[delle.livejournal.com]

I am on Facebook, under my RL name. Wherein I prattle about my job with the ballet and my kids and my dance classes. In other words, it's a very superficial view of me, I know it and it will remain that way.

On LJ, where I use my pseud, I talk about my fannish obsessions, my costuming, my dance classes, my full time job and my ballet job, my family, my husband, my crisises and my depression. In other words, while you may not know all of me, you know much more of me on LJ than anywhere else except Real Life Face-To-Face (and even then, I don't talk about my fannish stuff and costuming to my coworkers or my mother)

Fuck this "RL names are REAL and people are ACCOUNTABLE". I am more real as "delle" than any other name.


Also - do the creators of Google+ have any idea of what it is to be female on the Internet? And I know that's not fair, one of my very dear friends works for the company - but SERIOUSLY people!

[digitalwave]

After setting up my Google+ account I haven't really done anything with it because of all the privacy concerns. Heck, I'm surprised it hasn't been purged by them because I didn't use my real name in it. Maybe they just haven't gotten around to me yet.

You know, I have never been ashamed of any of my work, art, stories, etc. On the other hand, this has always been my space to come to that's just mine. They don't get to tell me that it's not all right to have this.

[alwaysaddled.livejournal.com]

I got to the point where Google+ requested my cell phone number to validate my account and closed the tab, never to return.

[verasteine.livejournal.com]

Wow, er, what? I've heard strange things about Google+ lately, just how insane are they out there?

[springwoof.livejournal.com]

Word!

And I was so excited about the possibilities of Google+, at first. Like FB, but better! supposedly.
Then they went and sucked all the attractiveness out of it for me with their oh, so condescending privileged bullshit. The folks spouting this BS about "real names" have never been persecuted, prejudiced against, stalked, or bullied for their beliefs, politics, religion, hobbies, activities, or just for who they *were*...