The Pseudo Expat

“You got another blog?!” my daughter exclaimed, “I can’t believe you mom!”

I look across the table at my seventeen-year old with shock and disbelief in my eyes as I stare at her and begin my taunt. “YOU are shocked at me for getting blog number THREE, Miss I-have-FIVE-blogs-floating-around-in-cyberspace!” I can’t stop myself. “You’re the one with all the “copyrights” on your pet du nom!” I tease, “Miss I am ‘——–.whatever.com’ username you!” Ha ha ha.

She rolls her eyes, “What’s it called?”

“thelmabowlen.wordpress.com”, I reply. “Everywhere and Here… again.”

“Wow, mom. How original.”

“Look who’s talking!” I laugh.

I jotted down a mental note to blog on the phenomena of picking a username. Within a few days of joining WordPress, I stumbled upon a blog that got my brain in gear and best explains why I use my real name.

Nik Cubrilovic apparently figured out the real identity of a certain ‘Skeptic’ behind a website called Dead 2.0, that was used to post attacks on other Web 2.0 startups. As it turns out, ‘Skeptic’ is a VP at a prominent company. Now that he’s been outed (read Nik’s blog for the details), one question that comes to mind is whether one can be both anonymous and popular?

I’m comfortable being me in cyberspace. But when I searched myself on Technorati, I didn’t expect to be surprised to find… me. Everything I have blogged… is… there. Suddenly feeling naked, I decided to be modest and ‘cover’ myself.

What did I do? I logged on to my Multiply account and promptly re-categorized my posts – ‘protected’ for Multiply Contacts only and ‘everyone’ for the world. The former holds personal albums, etc. while the latter is my basic self-promotion for my voicing and writing gigs.

Not that I’m famous in any way these days; nor do I have any desire to start a site that criticizes companies and people. I just feel that there are some things I’d like to keep… private. The world doesn’t need to see my daughter’s pictures nor me in the 80s. Especially me in the 80s.

The more I think about it. The more I realize that a username probably would make me more… bold to say what I wouldn’t normally say. No editing. No proofreading. No censorship. Not good. And based on Nik’s blog, so easy to find.

My 2 cents on why it’s best to be you:

• Life has a way of bringing things full circle. What you blog today may come back to out you, haunt you, or worse, both.
• It’s easier to trust a real name because it has a real person attached to it that has feelings and thoughts and… you get the picture.
• If you do become famous some day (not the most likely scenario), at least you were you in cyberspace first. need to be found, i.e. you need to market your talents and abilities, the world will know where to find you.

So for now, I’ll forego calling myself names like ‘chocolatechipcookiesrock’, ‘hotjavamama’, or ‘joeyroxmysox’ (just pulled these off the top of my head; no similarity to real usernames. if they are, apologies…), and stick with thelmabowlen. After all, if I wake up some day and change my mind about all things cyberspace, I can always hit ‘Delete’. And become ‘zachandjoeywereinthemorning’.