Security Through Obscurity
One of my oldest and closest friends on the internet commented on a recent post that all we invariably share via public blog posts is a “highlight reel” of our lifethe good bits. The bits we don't mind our family and real-world friends discovering.
It got me thinking.
I have flip-flopped this “personal” blog between being attached to my name or not several times over the past fewyears. I have self hosted it, WordPress and Blogger have taken turns hosting it, and even Tumblr got in on the action at one point (before I remembered how little you can trust Tumblr to be the custodian of anything except the odd selfie).
One of the advantages of writing a blog that exists on a different domain name than your actual identity is the faux comfort you draw that your friends and family will not readily find youand that your relative anonymity will allow you to spill your guts about anything and everything. All those private thoughts about real-world friends? All those arguments you've had with family? Kind of a ticking time bomb.
You see, writing behind a pseudonym is kind of like an elephant hiding behind a telegraph pole. It doesn't take much effort for anybody with determination to figure out who you are. Unfortunately it doesn't take much of a slightfor some people to spend inordinate amounts of time stalking your every move onlinefor years. All you can really do is “carry on carrying on”, and try to ignore that you're being sought outbeing followedbut in reality you know you're metering everything you ever say or do.
A few days after moving my posts to here, I considered moving them back againto hide them behind my virtual telegraph pole. I didn't go through with it. A part of me imagined the eye rolls from the few that follow my words, but another part of me recalledthe idiocy of hiding behind pseudonyms. All it takes is a Google image search, and you'll be found out very quickly. Some people go far further than an image search thoughthey quietly read absolutely everything, and if you hide, they begin reading everybody you knewlooking for traces. I've seen it happen time and time again.
Sofor the moment I'm staying here. I will continue to record the more interesting days (and some of the less interesting), and leave my real name alongside. If I look like wavering, remind me to come back and read this post.