Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

"When you create a social networking site that requires real names, you create an artificial bubble. What you see is just the nice things in people's lives, you don't see what's really happening. But when people have control over who knows their name, they still talk about cute cats and the latest iPhone and what kind of wine they drank last night, but they also talk about other things. They talk about dealing with their parent's Alzheimer's. They talk about how their daughter was missing for three days and got drugged and raped and the police refused to follow up. They talk about how they just lost their job and they're worried that they'll end up on the street. They talk about how their boss will fire them if he finds out they're gay. They talk about how they were sexually abused as a kid. They talk about what it's like to live in a country where bloggers get thrown in prison. People don't dare talk about those things with their birth names; not when Google is indexing everything they say.

"When you avoid or ban people who protect their birth names, you create an artificial world, one that doesn't reflect what's going on in the real world. When you surround yourself only with people who are using their birth names, you get the impression that everything is fine out there. That this is America, and people don't discriminate, people aren't ending up on the street through no fault of their own, people aren't getting stalked to their doorsteps because someone learned their name, and people aren't being judged by their sexual orientation. You're surrounded by people who seem to be just like you, because the conversation has been reduced to what's acceptable at the work watercooler.

"The sad thing is, if you're dealing with something difficult in your life, that bubble also makes you think you're alone. You think you're the only one, because nobody else is talking about how they're going to pay for their parents nursing care, or how hard it is to juggle work and family.

[...]

"I think people who say 'I'm more comfortable talking to people who use their real names' or 'they should find another social network' don't realize just what a broad swath of the population is being eliminated by this policy. They don't realize, because they've never had an honest and open conversation with anyone affected by it. They don't know that their co-worker is gay, or that their favorite barista got raped last month, or that their son's teacher is an atheist. They don't know that the person they are banning may be a neighbor or even a friend. They also don't realize how important online social networks are to people who don't have the freedom to talk to their peers in any other environment. Social networks aren't a 'game', they aren't something you do outside of your 'real' life. Social networks are a real place where real people meet, make friends, share ideas, create business relationships, and even end up getting married. And all of those things happen even if they initially meet without sharing their birth names. [...]

"Google certainly has a right to create a fancy restaurant with an illusion that everyone is telling the truth about who they are. But it's just that, an illusion.

[...]

"Personally, I prefer reality."

-- Kee Hinckley, "I'm just another middle-aged, reasonably well-off, American white guy" (2011-08-15?)

[Several people have been linking to this essay lately, usually quoting one or more of the first tree paragraphs I've quoted here. It does work better if you go read the whole thing.]