So after reading bits of Dr. Crazy's blog, she really got me thinking about our online personae, and not just on blogs. When I created my own blog for the class, I didn't bother to come up with a pseudonym, I just post under Kristen. I figured that my in-class contributions would pretty much echo what my blog was said, so there wasn't really an alter-ego being created. I suppose I could have had fun confusing people by being one person in class and another online, but chose not to for a variety of reasons.

And yet, like Gabe, I like posting under my own name. Now, I don't really have anything to protect at this point that my blog might threaten, but I think that also has to do with the intended utility of a blog. For my own sake, it serves me better to be publicly accountable for what I've written. It doesn't make me less raw, I just think more. It makes me try to develop my argument better, I try harder to maintain a decent and painless style of writing.

Sometimes, there will be posts like this one which are more emotional than intellectual, but that's okay on this space because I don't feel (at this point) that I've misrepresented myself. I'd welcome anyone to come up and talk to me in person about what I've written here. I don't feel the need to force people to comment solely on my blog, admiring or despising from afar under their own pseudonyms. It seems too easy to just smile knowingly as people chitchat by the watercooler about you, or be invisible and protected if the comments are disparaging. If you've got so much to say, why shouldn't you allow people to talk to and about you freely?

This may not apply to people like Dr. Crazy, because, as she's said, hers is an alter-ego. She doesn't seem to believe the blog represents her completely, just a part. There really is no other way to allow discourse that isn't filtered through her blog, because that's the only level the alter-ego exists on.

And then there are the people who have so many alter-egos, you'd think they have a personality disorder. I won't even go into that, because for the most part I think it's a load of rubbish and I'm not about to waste your patience venting.