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Are you like me? Do you enjoy pulling the wool over people's eyes over the slightest provocation? Hell, over no provocation at all?
How many people have you been online? How many faces and names have you had? Me personally, I've almost entirely lost track - upwards of 25+ past aliases - my best friends don't even know all of them, hell, sometimes I run into people who recognize my voice and I get SCARED because I don't remember all of them.
There's something immensely comforting about the anonymity the Internet provides - you can say anything and face little to no repercussions provided you say it properly and in the right places.
I clued into this when I was a child - like many yougsters at the time - we were regaled with stories of "sharing too much online" and how it almost always lead to negative outcomes. We had it hammered into our heads that you should never share pictures of your face (or rightfully so, your body) - your name, your location, etc. This stuck with me longer than it did my peers - while my classmates made facebook accounts and posted freely, adding whoever they could find online to grow their e-go (see what I did there?), I didn't. I was paranoid - but that paranoia translated into good infosec practices that I still use to this day.
Hell, my name isn't even "Seth". I've been everybody, had too many names to remember, got in the habit of even using fake names in real life in places I knew I wouldn't be returning to.
I met some of the best friends I've ever had using a fake name, and just a few short years later - it's the only name I use anymore (in real life). I got my name changed legally, and my only regret is that I didn't do it sooner.
I've had plenty of stories, been plenty of places that I shouldn't have been, dug my fingers into the wet cement of what I call "history" - I have made my mark on many small and budding communities to the point that I wonder if I'll be scrolling through some e-slop someday and find a greentext talking about the shit I used to get up to back in high school - or the shit that I still get up to in my off time nowadays.
It's fun, it's therapeutic even, and it's the only pastime that has constantly afforded me joy through the last eight years or so online.
I think back to those old aliases sometimes and wonder if I'm really done with them. Sometimes I get the urge to revisit them, to tread on my old stomping grounds, to chant at the neglected graves where my many pseudonyms lie rotting and raise them from the dead for one last hurrah.
I never do - but it always seems like a good enough idea in the moment.
So, I ask again, how many people have you been? How many faces have you worn? Which one's did you like, and which one's are you not proud of? Was it the second lives which got you in trouble? Or was it the third, fourth, fifth, and sixth one's?
How Many People Have You Been?
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rosenzweig
i've had like, three or four aliases. couple of them solely for the purpose of being a baiting troll online. it's epic, i hope someone i messed with finds me and gives me a nice haymaker that sends me flying into a wall
I hope no one ever has to feel what I felt when I was playing TF2 with the homies one night and - out of the blue - a player on the other team says "Hey, you, deep voice - I remember you, you used to have a Joker profile picture".
It was like coming to after a night of hard drinking and trying your damnedest to decipher what you did the night before. It was not fun to say the least.
by Seth; ; Report
What a fucking menace, LMAO. Own up to it, people who don't like you are really funny. Rent-free in their head. And none of them do shit about it
by rosenzweig; ; Report
What a fucking menace, LMAO. Own up to it, people who don't like you are really funny. Rent-free in their head. And none of them do shit about it
by rosenzweig; ; Report
It wasn't that I didn't want to own up to it - I legitimately was afraid of finding out what I had done on that account - as well as being afraid that my friends would find out. I haven't always had the squeakiest clean reputation in the places I've tread.
by Seth; ; Report
That's too vague for me to really get but I hope you manage to not bump into people in the future then x just lie and say you have no clue what they're talkin about
by rosenzweig; ; Report
There's been times that I have been able to join back places that I had left months prior under a different name and not be recognized. It's all about typing style, playing dumb, and what you post about.
by Seth; ; Report
Yep yep, used to do it a lot during covid on disc. Good times, cba now though. Crazy how just skipping caps and commas+full stops can make such a difference
by rosenzweig; ; Report