Facebook’s new “Real Name” policy has sent a wave of emotions around the world. There are many reasons why people do not want to use their real name on Facebook, and the majority of these reasons are not sinister!
You may need to use an alias due to employment, teachers and prison guards come to mind as people who may not want to be found by their peers, what about people fearful for their life due to an ex partner, ex criminal ties, past gang affiliation, or people who are LBGT and don’t want to be publicly outed, and just every day people who don’t want to be added by co workers or ex classmates.
For me personally up until recently I used Tha Karla simply because this is my social media alias. Tha Karla all started when I went to sign up to something and Karla was already taken, The Karla was already taken, and I was like you know what I am THA KARLA!
I have Tha Karla for Email, Twitter, Facebook, Myspace, Instagram (well kind of its tha.karla) and of course my blog is also tha karla, so why is it that I logged onto facebook a couple of months ago only to be advised by Facebook that I was not a real person, Tha Karla was not my real name and should I wish to keep using Tha Karla on Facebook I had to provide government Id to Facebook!
This is just ridiculous atleast my name really is Karla!!! I have seen so many names that are not even close to real yet I am the one singled out!
I remember a time when it was highly popular to use a pseudonym or alias online and people were warned not to use their real identity, so when did this suddenly change? When did it be considered socially acceptable to use your real name?
So why Mr Zuckerburg is it that I have to use my real name? Is it so you can sell my information to companies to smart market me, is it so the intelligence agencies can have a database of the world? Why Mark, Why? Wasn’t facebook started out as a rating site for attractive woman? When did facebook become so political and driven by monetary gain! What happened to the mystery of online profiles?
Side note: back in the day I was #1 on HotorNot.com for like a day or something (using an alias of course)
Society has changed so much and so quickly, not only is it now okay to use your real name, it is a policy of one of the most popular websites on the internet today, as is the rise in popularity to document every waking moment online and give pictures and locations (geo tagging or check ins) to further assist in the identification of not only your real name but your whereabouts too.
Who is identifying you, you may ask? It is more like who is not identifying you! Of course we have the usual suspects Exes, people you went to school with, people who you went to uni with, people you used to work with, people who now date said exes, even random curious people who saw a mutual friend like or comment on your photo or latest over share of your life, not to mention the creepy next door neighbour, the spy agencies whose job it is to monitor the online world need I continue, which is is why people should have the right to use an alias whether it be on Facebook or instagram or whatever online forum you chose.
With the rise of cyber crime, cyber bullying and identity theft, it may not be the wisest move to post every intimate detail online creating a digital footprint of your latest relationship disaster or the recent birth of your child, and most importantly giving people real time access to your real name, real date of birth, whereabouts, etc.
For now I will keep using my aliases in hope to protect whatever privacy we have left in the modern world.
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