When we comment on posts, statuses, or tweets online, we tend to use a screen name, but why exactly do we do that? Well the folks at Disqus (the company that powers our comments system, by the way) decided to survey about 1,000 people who use their service and an additional 1,000 general internet users as to how they identify themselves online.
It turns out that a good majority still rely on pseudonyms when posting comments online, but why is that? Well according to Disqus’ VP of marketing and communication Steve Roy, using a pseudonym makes them feel safe and comfortable when it comes to sharing opinions about potentially controversial topics, like religion and politics.
“It’s not about hiding. It’s about privacy and choosing your identity when exercising your free speech,” says Roy. Of course there is always a chance that people could be hiding behind a pseudonym simply because it makes them relatively anonymous so that they can troll other users and leave behind hateful comments without much repercussion to their real life.
Internet services like YouTube, Google+, and Facebook have and had attempted to force users to use their real names when making comments or signing up for accounts. This was meant to make users more accountable for their actions, although in the case of Facebook, they faced some backlash which forced them to apologize for their decision.
That being said what do you guys think? Why do you use a pseudonym when posting online?
Filed in . Read more about Study.