The first problem I see is separating my online identity with my real identity. I really don't want anyone at my job finding out which dog I am on the internet.
My coworkers and family really wouldn't appreciate my shit posting. :)
The second is friends of friends can get really awkward. There are some people who are friends with me that are also friends with people who never want to see me again.
> My coworkers and family really wouldn't appreciate my shit posting.
Shit posting is one of the biggest forms of toxicity online. It would be nice if it went away by tying posts to real people. Some people don't care and would shitpost anyway, but most people only shitpost because nobody knows who they really are.
I think maybe it depends how you define shit posting. If you mean trolling or posting extremely negative and low-effort content, then I suppose I agree with you about it being toxic.
But if shitposting is just off-color jokes or talking about topics you might want to keep private, I don't see that as a problem. I think a lot of great internet content wouldn't exist without some form of anonymity. I certainly wouldn't share genuine insights into my job without anonymity. People wouldn't share sexual content or secrets. Many people wouldn't share anything at all no matter how tame or appropriate. My wife over thinks when she writes and is always afraid she isn't wording things well. She posts absolutely nothing outside of Reddit.
> It would be nice if it went away by tying posts to real people. Some people don't care and would shitpost anyway, but most people only shitpost because nobody knows who they really are.
If this was true and the only explanation, HN should be much worse than it is and Facebook should be much better than it is.
Even as a person who hardly ever get in trouble with mods I have come to deeply appreciate the possibility to have accounts or profiles totally disconnected from reality.
Many stories we see couldn't have been shared if a hard link to a real identity was necessary, and many questions could not ve asked.
For example random22username12 asking about some technical aspect about some software is not a problem.
But if he is Firstname Lastname from Some Company it might get him in trouble, as it might tell others what they are working on.
The bar for "shitposting you don't want your coworkers to know about" is so low nowadays that it's almost a free speech issue to allow anonymous accounts.
If you post about not like drag shows in front of children, that itself is harmless enough in a vacuum but polarizes people to a serious extent
As people who don’t do this, I prefer to stay anonymous. Anonymous writing has a long and good history with some bad apples. Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwafrr
Oh my god, yes. It's like most online content has to be communicated in crappy memes, sarcastic quotes, and weird existential dread responses. It drives me insane.
Being contrarian for no other reason than to annoy, or trying to get under someone’s skin, ignoring their arguments and riding roughshod over what they’re trying to say. Things people avoid doing in real life because very soon after doing them you find yourself disliked.
I had a conversation recently about the problems of social media and the growing extremes of political viewpoints. We agreed the a good part of the problem is partially caused by the online echo chamber but mostly by the increasing physical isolation of people in the real world. In the past the majority of men would have worked in manual labor with lots of other people, women would have worked at home and spent a lot more time getting to know their neighbours, now we work in isolation on a screen and stay at home without integrating with a community on a daily basis like times past. This allows people's views to go unchallenged and reduces the middle ground we all depended upon. Previously our vees would be challenged and our standing in our community would depend on our views. To go back to your point about anonymity should we be posting stuff online that we know our physical peers would have a problem with. Anonymity has its place I'm just not sure where the line is drawn.
To some degree, I agree. But I also grew up before social media. Very little has changed about the fundamental ugliness of human behavior we try to tuck into a corner.
As someone who was seriously hurt by forced conformity, I’m not exactly pining for the way things used to be.
It wasn’t that long ago when people were expected to drink themselves to death rather than seek help.
I mean, nothing would stop you from making a fake identity, and friending other anonymous people, and posting spicy memes. But you can do that on mastodon today, right? This is for the cases where you want to prove your identity. If most people use it that way, then the anonymous people would be little subnets that are either separate from the main graph or connected by only a few nodes. Typical users would* have dozens of people vouching for them, who each have dozens of people vouching for them, etc, which is strong evidence that they're who they say they are.
* in some hypothetical future where this gets made and is wildly successful
That's exactly the point of small social circles. You can segment your audience as a broadcaster based on shared interests, language, and understanding.
The vast majority of the Internet doesn't need to read your shit posting. However, a small group of friends might find that appealing. If no one finds that content useful, amusing, or interesting... you'd be screaming at a wall. Isn't that exactly how it should be?
That's... not relevant? OP was talking about a system that requires tapping phones to connect and using friends of friends to form secondary connections.
This is why I have a burner sim for online accounts requiring a phone number. (Looking at you Telegram...)
My coworkers and family really wouldn't appreciate my shit posting. :)
The second is friends of friends can get really awkward. There are some people who are friends with me that are also friends with people who never want to see me again.