Identity and the Internet

Some people are still trying to wrap their heads around why I’d drop UncleBear, a brand with so much equity in it.  Stargazer wrote an interesting blog post the other day about Identity on the Internet, which got me thinking about these issues again.

First and foremost, I am not a brand, I am a person. I wish to be treated as a person, not a commodity. UncleBear is associated with a specific topic; I am more than that and have things to say about a wider array of life issues. The fact that this blog gets almost as many hits for these sorts of posts as it does for posts related to roleplaying games and geekish topics seems to validate that. When I write about these things as Berin Kinsman, I get no flak and positive feedback. When I tried to write about anything other than roleplaying games under the sobriquet of UncleBear, I caught hell and got a lot of negativity directed at me. The brand limits. The brand typecasts.

Yesterday I wrote about the responsibility of having free speech. By posting under my real name, with my actual photograph on display rather than some false avatar, it forces me to own my words. I have to take responsibility for my words. I cannot hide behind a veil of anonymity. This forces me think before I post, to choose my words carefully, and even to censor myself if I’m tempted to say something that might be inappropriate, or hurtful, or otherwise come back to bite me later. As a side benefit for readers, you get to know more of the real me, rather than a character I’m playing or an authorial “voice” I’m assuming.

That’s not meant to be a dig at people who use pseudonyms for privacy, however. Do not take that the wrong way. I absolutely understand the many good, valid reasons to use handes and nicknames. I know people who have been in abusive situations who do not want to be found yet still enjoy the benefits of internet communication. I know people in law enforcement who aren’t allowed to have a social media presence in their real name. Having been an investigator, though, I know how easy it is to dig up information on people. I was also on the internet long before anyone started thinking about these sorts of issues. While I take some basic security precautions, I’ve pretty much abandoned the idea that privacy as we once defined it still exists in the 21st century. Put another way, if the price of interacting with communities of friends is giving up the illusion of privacy, I consider it a bargain.

“Character is what you are in the dark” – Lord John Whorfin

In the 21st century, who we are on the internet is often who we are in the “real world”. We become the way we behave. Many of us interact with more people via email, social networks, and Skype than we do face-to-face. The communication habits we develop online carry over into the real world. The way we conduct our relationships online carries over to the real world.  You may try to adopt a persona or act differently, but it’s still you, whether you’re clacking the keys on a keyboard or carrying on a conversation across a dinner table. We need to stop trying to parse identity, to split and fragment and over-define, and just be. We need to be true to ourselves, to be honest, to embrace truth, and to conduct ourselves with dignity and integrity no matter how or where or by what means we’re interacting with others.