Anonymous blogging — right or wrong?
The blog, a contraction of the term weblog, has exploded in popularity over the last few years. It seems that everyone has a blog, and this can be used as a medium to express all kinds of opinions, as well as to disseminate information and items of entertainment. Many bloggers do so on a daily basis, or even more frequently, posting ad nauseum about their passion. One of the dictionaries defines the blog as “a frequent, chronological publication of personal thoughts and links”, and there are many of them — estimated to be over 112 million blogs published through the medium of English alone according to Technorati. A majority of bloggers do so under a pseudonym, which raises the question — is it okay to be an anonymous blogger?
To answer this question, one has to consider why people blog in the first place. To those of us who live in the free world, it is in many cases just an expression of this. It is simply okay to do so. People often blog to “get it off their chests”, to express their opinion, amazement, outrage or, sometimes, neutrality on a given subject. Many people reckon that blogging is a healthy pastime and an extension of their rights in the free world. Others, however, reckon that the ability to hide behind a pseudonym allows people to attack others, religions, beliefs, political causes and that these bloggers should make sure that their postings are placed under their real name.
Recently, one prominent political blogger “outed” another blogger, causing quite an uproar. The outed blogger maintains that he wanted to remain anonymous as his political opinions differed from his family’s. He also maintains that posting under one’s own name can have far-reaching consequences in a professional environment, or in the realm of education, where blogging is particularly virulent. It is further explained that blogs, once written and published, have a lengthy shelf life, and can be referred to by prospective employers in the private sector and in academia.
In addition to the use of a pseudonym there are other ways to make sure that your blogging identity can be protected. If you are worried about technological ways to “out” you, consider becoming part of a private network. You can do all your blogging via a proxy server if you want to, which means that your IP address, which is basically the address of your computer, cannot identify your location and possibly point to you as the user. There are even more anonymous proxy network setups available should you wish to extend the use of your invisibility cloak.
Whilst arguments can be made on both sides of the fence, in a free world those who blog anonymously should do so with impunity. If they have honorable reasons for doing so – such as the protection of their family’s security, or to guard against discrimination – then they should be allowed to continue, just so long as they honor and respect other people’s beliefs and especially the beliefs of those people who do blog under their own names!
What do you think of anonymous blogging? Leave your response in a comment – Anonymously if you like!
Matthew Toren
