No Name is a Name

Another thing that has changed a lot since I stopped blogging more than a decade ago is how we all view privacy and our online identities. Back in the 2000s, a large proportion of bloggers wrote pseudonymously, under very silly nicknames. Nate Silver was Poblano. Megan McCardle was Jane Galt. Bill Simmons was the Boston Sports Guy. 

In the cricket blogosphere, there was Uncle J Rod. There was King Cricket. I was D.S. Henry, and would go out of my way to hide my real identity, even to friends and family. 

I’m struck by how different things are today, when not only are people a lot more open about their identities, but they often brandish them with glee, even at their personal risk. Now even the insurrectionists stop to answer questions and give their names to reporters.

The COVID pandemic has probably accelerated this trend towards transparency. A couple of years ago, I would’ve felt quite reticent to turn on my camera during Skype calls. Now, after months of working on Zoom, I barely even notice when the green HAL 9000 light shrines brightly at the top of my laptop.

At the same time, it’s possible we may be turning a corner. We are slowly realising how fraught it can be to display our whole unvarnished identity and reputation—our images, our places of work, our instinctive opinions and reactions to every droplet of news—fully out in the open for everyone to see. 

As Balaji Srinivasan explains, there might come a need to move into pseudonymity again. Not anonymity, which can breed nihilist trolling and traffic in our worst online impulses. A return to pseudonymity, which is still accountable, but not as vulnerable as using our real names in everything that we do.