Hypocrisy of online anonymity
I want to be anonymous in the cyberspace. And your responsse will most probably like "Yeah Right". If you look around in the web, online communities are full of paranoids. Many people use pseudonyms, login names and such. Very few people use their own names in much fewer online community. The reason most of them give?? I would like to avoid security holes or I would like to keep my privacy intact.
Whatever the reasons, in short, they means "because I'm paranoid!!"
So, what is our online community becoming to? It is like being in the room full of strangers and all of them are wearing masks!! Oh, wait .. I need to add.. All of them are wearing "see-through" masks!!..
What?? See-through mask?? Nonsense, you may say. But, look around and think carefully, my friend. Are we really being anonymous in cyberspace? Staying anonymous online is a myth. Nothing more, nothing less.
If somebody want to trace you, there are means and ways to do that. For example, they can trace your IP and such. Even if you are using dial-up or using internet from cyber cafe or even from your friend's house, eventually you can be traced. If not, how come virus makers and computer hackers are being exposed and sent to jail? You can argue those who got caught are minority.
But the truth is if somebody is willing to spend resources (time and money) to trace another person, it is a matter of time that person got traced. So, be afraid, be very afraid....
So, you became hyper-paranoid about being traced?? Being un-maksed online? The truth, again, is " There are ONLY see-through masks to be used online!!"
While people are being paranoid about "getting un-mask" online, on the other hand, these same people are creating homepages, blogs, personal webspaces and so on. And at the same time, they are promoting those links one way or the other. They want to be known. They want many visitors to come to their sites. I'm not talking about commercial websites or business sites here. I'm talking about personal homepages.
Even when I was a newbie web user, I created one homepage and tried to list in many search engines and newsgroup for free.. Some are even paying money to get noticed!! Sounds pathetic, isn't it? But that is true. And many people are advising their homepages or blogs to their friends and relatives.
Now, while normally people don't like to be known but for their blogs and home pages, people would like others to visit. What is the rational behind this?
The only rational I can think of is people want to create the image for other people to see. That image may be their true identity or that image may be just smoke and mirror. If I wrote, I'm a yong and handsome billionaire as well as available bachelor on my homepages, who can deter me?? And don't be surprised there are many who will believe that too.
But me? I'm different. That's why I said "I want to be anonymous in the cyberspace." And I'm not going to advertise my blog in any form. Let's see how many people can find this place without my effort. But I still like to see people reading what I wrote too..
So, I am a hypcrite. What do want to do? Shoot me??
And I'm thinking of collecting my blog entries here and publish as "My Unpublished Thoughts" in the future. Yeah, right!
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