Note: totally copied and pasted this from my G+ account and added a image to the top of the post.
Is it me or does it remind you of “America, Love it or Leave It!” when you see all these pro “real name” people on G+ say “If you don’t like Google’s real name policy then don’t use G+!” Can we please drop this kind of thinking?
As you probably can tell I’m a fan of using my pseudonyms on G+. People say that using pseudonyms promotes trolling. I ask you if any of my posts are what you consider trolling. Using the pseudonyms promoting trolling idea would mean this entire post is really me trolling you right?
The thing that has kept me coming back to G+ is the level of conversation. On other social networks I have not had this level of conversation and interaction with people. So if you tell me to go to other social networks I ask you to show me one that actually promotes discussion like this one? I’ve tried to have discussions in Facebook and that has never really turned out well. You know how it goes, you leave a comment hoping the person will respond and you get no reply at all.
I really think people forget that G+ is very different from other Google products and services. It is delving into the world of social. Social is different because it is not black and white. It’s human nature to be social. Why do you think things like chat rooms where created? Even if we aren’t physically in the same room we are still communicating with each other and developing relationships.
Merriam-Webster says one of the definitions of social is “of or relating to human society, the interaction of the individual and the group.” Does that not sound like what many of us do in a chat room? It seems to be acceptable there to use your pseudonym but once you put it on a “social network website” it seems to faux pas to the masses.
Now I’m not saying that everyone should be using pseudonyms and never post their real name. What I’m saying is please don’t treat this as a black and white problem that has clear-cut solutions.
I don’t have a solution for this whole pseudonym vs. real name problem. I just know that banning people’s accounts that use pseudonyms is probably not the best way to approach it. Getting rid of brands I might understand but not people who are here just trying to use it to connect and interact with friends/family/etc. We will see in time what is going to happen but I beg all of you PLEASE drop this “just don’t use it” mentality. You can’t be social with one person it takes at least two! That doesn’t mean one of the two can’t use a pseudonym.
Also this is probably the one and only time you will see me post about this topic. After going back and seeing how long this post is you probably have had more than enough of this topic from me. I’ll go back to doing hangouts, posting random pics and re-sharing cool things on G+.
Tags: Discussion, Google+, Personal Thoughts, Pseudonyms
