I enjoy my anonymity at JU. I think it’s fun to meet different people from diverse walks of life and exchange views with them without the social barrier usually associated with, well, personal encounters with strangers. The registration at JU becomes a de facto string that unlatches the gate to a blogsphere that says “enter at your own risk (it’s really not much of a risk)”. Since it’s an open venue, as long as you retain your anonymity (and sanity), you’re armed enough.
Somewhere along the way of blogging,as you get comfortable, the paper mask you hold before your face starts to peel, as you start to relate, in no uncertain terms, how strongly you feel about certain aspects of your life, your work, or other folks, etc. In some instances, some bloggers would just scream “whattheheck, I’ve got nothing to hide”,and throw the mask away.
I remember this thread where the host(ess?) came right out with it and blurted “Can we have your names, please?” Most in the friendly(?) community of JU responded, with mostly first names, which was good enough, for an ice breaker, but not good enough to have you trade in that precious commodity – your anonymity (and credit card number). I think for bloggers , it’s mostly what you want to say –a strong passion, emotion, gutfeel that you want to scream out to the anonymous world without fear of a disturbing return call later. For chatroom users, it’s usually who you might meet that’s important, so anonymity becomes selective. Anyway, I think JU has mechanisms for bloggers interested in meeting each other or at least trading email addresses.
But, lately, a sprinkling of anonymous users randomly appear in some registered blogger’s thread not just to give valid comments but to incite reaction (read negative reaction). Knowing how easy it is for one to come in as an anonymous user, and even multiply-register using varied email addresses, one could actually have multiple personalities at JU, theoretically. So, imagine one registered blogger giving out his honest-to-goodness view then meeting up with 5 different blogger identities commenting how absurd his view is when it is actually the same person commenting? It’s called role-playing and schizophrenics are good at this.
Like I said, it’s a hypothesis. Multiple personalities of one person are strewn around to incite reaction. We’re like one interactive video game. It’s a thought.or maybe it’s paranoia.
What do you think?
