About Pen Names
With so much of our lives having come to be online, one notion has become very clear to me: our real names will always be primarily associated with our source of income. That is, employers require you to disclose your real name and, for most professions, require you to be known by that name. And, given that I am going to write about spirituality—hopefully, from a mature point of view, there will be topics here that include things I would generally not talk about at work. Not that there is much risk for me in this. However, I would rather keep my spiritual life out of the work place, if only because it would be uncomfortable to be seen as someone who would proselytize, sell, or witness to co-workers.
I think it's too soon to decide how culture is going to deal with this; but until the issues around social boundaries and political correctness are worked out, I think there's a need for people to be careful about using their real name online. Most of the time it's not a big deal, and awkward situations tend to be occasional. But, real free speech necessitates a right to some degree of anonymity. As such, I tend to avoid those places for online discussions where real names are required. I view those places as not doing a good job to support freedom of speech, especially given that there are places in this country where people can be fired for expressing the wrong political view.
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