True Names and True Selves

[athelind]

In a response to my post about the Doctrine of "Real" Names, araquan provided the following insight from a Charlie Rose interview with Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg:

Facebook COO Sandberg talked about the power of relationship-based networks, contrasting "the wisdom of crowds to the wisdom of friends."

"So that's Google versus Facebook right there," Rose replied.

Sandberg didn't agree. She thinks the entire first phase of the Web's development -- which led to "a lot of wonderful things" -- was largely based on "anonymity and links between crowds."

The next stage of development, the one Facebook has spearheaded, is built around identity. "The social Web can't exist until you are your real self online," Sandberg said. "I have to be me, you have to be Charlie Rose."

The logical fallacy, of course, is the conflation of "real self" with "legal name". You can't be your "real self" if you're always wondering, "what would my family think of this? What if my boss Googles me?"

I am my "real self" online, and my "social Web" is woven among those who know me as "Athelind" and "Your Obedient Serpent".

That other name?

That's not my "real self", Ms. Sandberg.

That's my banking information, and I know why you want it.

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Comments

[drakegrey.livejournal.com]

I think I will play a bit of devil's advocate, on this one. I try not to as that usually gets me into trouble but, what the heck. I'm in one of my 'Paint It Black' moods anyways, as you might have noticed.

On the one hoof I agree with you totally. Sandberg's response is about as smarmy and especially, as creepy as it can get - oh, you can't be SOCIAL unless you're the real you, Number Six. You don't want to be... UNSOCIAL, do you?

And your prognosis is dead on: her 'social web doesn't exist without real selves' is a lame ass smokescreen. As I noted previously to another here in this post, Sandberg doesn't KNOW from social, she's just a beancounter and a nerd. She has no idea what she's talking about and has a sound byte that was written by someone else, to advance her cause and get her yo' moneys. Nothing more.

But on the other hoof -

We've seen what we've wrought, with the ability to essentially be someone who isn't you and totally anonymous. Greater Internet Fuckwad Theory certainly is part of that statement; that MySpace suicide of a few years ago, where a teen girl killed herself because, in brief, a bored housewife pretended to be a teen boy and became her boyfriend and then dumped her, that's part of it too.

Then there's those underaged users at Furaffinity, who are browsing and marking as favorites explicit, adult art. That's part of that statement, too.

So while I'm not willing to sign an affidavit and provide my SSN# every time I want to comment, 'what an informative, great article!' at ABCNews.com -

I'm still, never the less, kind of wondering how much longer this anonymous Land Of Do As You Will we created online can persist.