It was 1999 and I was still using ICQ (wow, there’s a blast from the past). I’d just started university and I’d only been online for a little over a year.
Every now and then, I’d open up my profile so that random chatters could find me. It was my new hobby. It made me feel all superior because most people on it (and, I dare say, people in general) were barely literate. Though occasionally I’d meet someone really clever and fun to chat to from the other side of the world – a friend I’d never have met otherwise. It was pen-pals in real time. It was awesome.
One day, a random message appeared on my screen:
“do u cyber im 21 blond haired tan complected football build”
I blinked. No, I’d read it right. I had even mentally added punctuation where it should’ve been. And still, all I could picture was someone who was the shape and colour of a football with a blond wig on top.
I could be facetious and say that ”do u cyber” is grammatically on par with “koala pineapple yesterday”, but instead I’ll get to the point of this post: online anonymity.
Ah, the nameless, faceless realm of the internet means you can say and do what you like pretty much without consequence – like propositioning strangers with “cyber” (let’s at least go to dinner at a nice Second-Life restaurant first!).
It’s something I’ve never quite been able to reconcile, personally. I can’t get over the fact that, regardless of whether my name is on something or not, if I’ve created it it’s mine. Even adopting a ‘persona’ is not enough - playing a character still involves personal truth (once an actor…).
Besides, I have too many turns of phrase that I’ve custom-made for myself – and it takes way too much brain power to switch them off. So people will know, people will know!
Still, there are scores of people who, day after day, use the web as their litter box. Anyone who’s followed (or moderated) comments on a high-traffic website will recognise this. Once you get over the illiteracy (you have to distance yourself from the evil or it destroys you!), other more sinister truths come to light: If online comments are anything to go by, people in general are really, really bitter.
(and, alright, illiterate! Oh lord, I despair for the future of the written word…)
As a nameless, faceless entity, it seems, people feel at liberty to express contempt, envy and even hatred for their fellow human beings. It can be frightening.
But there is one aspect of online anonymity that I do really, really miss. The Daley Rant was, once upon a time, semi-anonymous – my friends knew it was me, but it didn’t have my full name to it. And that was cool because then I could crack jokes about work (it’s a goldmine sometimes… and already I’ve said too much - just swallow this forget-me-now) and occasionally be a bit more personal (read: whine about boys).
Now I’m renegotiating the territory. I’m asking myself, at every turn, “Am I happy to have my name on this?” Or, more importantly, “How much trouble will saying this get me into?”
There’s a lot to be said for the anonymous blog - he’s not so anonymous now, but The Waiter was at liberty to be candid and scathing about his profession in his Rant… without getting sacked. The uncensored truth is compelling – who doesn’t love a behind-the-scenes stickybeak?
So being a nameless, faceless entity online has its advantages in a literary sense – ie: it can be used for good, not evil.
Then of course there are the folks, like our blond friend on ICQ, who make use of their anonymity in other ways. Ah well, whatever floats your football…
