Welcome once again to Fandango’s Provocative Question. Each week I will pose what I think is a provocative question for your consideration.
By provocative, I don’t mean a question that will cause annoyance or anger. Nor do I mean a question intended to arouse sexual desire or interest.
What I do mean is a question that is likely to get you to think, to be creative, and to provoke a response. Hopefully a positive response.
I blog anonymously, and so do a significant number of other bloggers. I’m not on Facebook, Twitter, or other social media sites, but I understand that a lot of people on those sites are posting anonymously, using pseudonyms or aliases.
In my case, I use a pseudonym on WordPress to protect my personal privacy and because I’ve had my identity stolen for fraudulent purposes twice already. But I don’t use my anonymity for malicious purposes or to be offensive.
So, along those lines, my provocative question this week is…
How do you feel about online anonymity? Do you believe that when people are hiding their real world identity, it encourages them to misbehave or to be offensive? Or does it allow people to reveal who they really are or possibly how they would choose to be and act all the time if they could?
If you choose to participate, write a post with your response to the question. Once you are done, tag your post with #FPQ and create a pingback to this post if you are on WordPress. Or you can simply include a link to your post in the comments. But remember to check to confirm that your pingback or your link shows up in the comments.
This, That, and the Other 
Here’s mine
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Do you not think “online” just kinda magnifies what people would do anyway?
If someone is going to spout hate speech online, they are probably spouting it offline too.
The notion that people are anonymous online is nonsense, at least technically. But whether laws allow access to the trail, or whether agencies can be bothered to follow the trail, is another matter.
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True. Any good sleuth can track you down online.
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Here’s my contribution: https://sparksfromacombustiblemind.wordpress.com/2022/06/08/fandangos-provocative-question-168-6-8-2022/ Great topic today I think! 🙂
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For me there are only two options: blog anonymously or don’t blog at all.
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Yep. Me too!
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I have a post up in the morning. I decided years ago that anonymity was pointless and anyone who could hack could find me in a nanosecond. But I don’t blame you for trying.
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They don’t even need to be a GOOD sleuth. I have at least two mystery novels that tell you exactly how to do it. I get why you hope it will hope and I hope it really does help. Meanwhile…
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While I say I “was” idealistic to a fault and didn’t think it was okay to say anything about anyone that wasn’t nice or positive about them, I’m still compliant in many ways. For example, I don’t spread facts about my mother although my mother lies about me on a regular basis (even on a legal level). In other words, there are things I won’t say if the person I’m talking about can be identified (in part through identifying me). Here are illustrations (marked as “2)” and “3)”: https://fivedotoh.com/2022/06/06/share-your-world-june-6-2022/#comments
The husband, during the time we were separated prior to determining if divorce was necessary or not, decided to say (as if everyone is supposed to be so stupid as to not know the definition of alcoholism) that he was an alcoholic (not). This was along the lines that, then, if you go around “apologizing” to people… clean slate with little other work when drinking wasn’t the issue (which apologizing aspect with little to no other change was nothing new). In the long run, there was internal motivation involved but I think also being “on the spectrum.”
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I’ve really no idea why my mother christened me ‘Brutus’ – perhaps she already suspected that I might turn out a bit two faced.
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