Pseudonym Mania!
From time to time there are comments that fly regarding users who choose to use pseudonyms rather than their real names. I happen to be one of those who choose to use a pseudonym, as you may notice. Having said that though, there are a number of users who know exactly who I am, and even what my full real name actually is, and it is… Whoa, almost gave it away!
While there exist some malicious reasons for some users choosing to use pseudonyms, like for the purposes of, for example, trolling and to be just downright nasty, there do happen to be some very good and valid reasons to use a pseudonym. I’m going to start light and easy, and get progressively serious and even spiritual as I go along. You have been warned!
1. Choosing a good pseudonym allows one to be creative. It stimulates thought to choose or to invent something clever, fun, and witty. And in many cases, something that reflects on the person’s character, or something that is important to the person (whether spiritual, scientific, or whatever).
2. A good pseudonym can go very nicely with a good profile pic. They can tie in nicely with each other, reinforcing point 1 above. Both points 1 and 2 many times cannot be fully achieved by using one’s real name.
Having said the above though, it is very possible to do this on N24 itself, while using a real Facebook account. So why do many still choose pseudonyms even on Facebook? My take on it is as follows:
3. Threats, safety concerns and issues. With the robust debate stimulated by the many controversial topics by vast numbers of users on N24, as well as the calibre (or lack thereof) of certain users, threats are actually given by those who are offended to those who have offended the individual. From what I understand, these threats can be outright vicious, nasty, and even life-threatening. I choose to save myself and my family this nastiness, not out of fear or because God cannot keep me safe, but it is just downright impractical to put oneself and one’s family through such irritation of such idiotic people issuing threats. I take it in the sense of locking my house and car, not because of fear or because God cannot safeguard, but because of being practical and wise to safeguard against very real criminals out there. N24 is not worth revealing my true identity to potentially attract “stalkers” and “criminals” into my real world, where there is enough going on anyways.
4. Not wanting one’s real name to be mocked. This is really a very practical one to me. I would rather my pseudonym be mocked and ridiculed rather than my real name. There are many haters and mockers here on N24. I again choose to rather use a pseudonym than to put my real and good name with its real and good meaning through the mud by people who I do not even know or respect. I would take issue in the real world by people mocking my real name (and no-one does anyways), but mocking appears to be the norm on-line. I cannot overcome this by using my real name on-line, so a pseudonym works just fine to take on the insults.
To get super-spiritual on you all, and some might not follow the logic here and I understand that, but here goes anyways:
5. Using a pseudonym restricts or limits my identification in the spiritual realm by occultists, satanists, witches, and other users who are operating under strong demonic powers, when they want to issue curses and attack me and my family spiritually. There is much spiritual warfare behind the on-line war of words here, and occultists, etc. use the names, identities and other information of people that they want to attack spiritually, against them.
6. Lastly, based on point 5 above, I use a pseudonym to actually safeguard those who want to curse me and spiritually attack me. How so? This one is mostly self-explanatory according to Psalm 7:14-16 – “Behold, the wicked brings forth iniquity; Yes, he conceives trouble and brings forth falsehood. He made a pit and dug it out, And has fallen into the ditch which he made. His trouble shall return upon his own head, And his violent dealing shall come down on his own crown.” The very wickedness assigned against God’s people fall on the senders’ own heads. This is a spiritual law. If my spiritual enemies cannot easily curse or attack me, the better for them, not me.
Conclusion:
While I fully respect those who use their real names here, to me it just makes sense on a number of levels to rather use a pseudonym on a faceless, public, mixed-crowd on-line forum such as this one. The reasons obviously differ from person to person, but these are mainly my reasons why.
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