The Return of the Nickname
Not having an online presence is starting to be as odd as not having a telephone number at all. A “what’s up with you then?”
Besides the fact that it is just … odd … it’s also increasingly impractical. Like not having a car to extend the range within which you can work, not having an online presence is limiting the number of times you’re going to be accepted for a job.
Why You Have To Be Present Online
When nary the geek could get online and “do” HTML to make a web page, online presence needn’t apply to everyone.
When Geocities made What You See Is What You Get (sort of…) web page designers or when Blogger launched – you still didn’t need an online presence because back then being online was just that: being online.
Since the rise of social media and now social networking it has become: being online.
Nicknames & The Second Profile
Back in the day” we used nicknames. Remember? Online was dangerous and you needed to remain somewhat anonymous.
So when Jane would join a fishing board she would be “flylady18” or when John would sign into his parenting forum he’d be “DaDude” or something.
What we experience now is that by being online as ourselves, we have no privacy. The lady going to the beach while “sick” is spotted via Facebook and fired. The disgruntled employee airing via Twitter has made a company enemy for life.
So the next wave will be regular people maintaining multiple social networking accounts; one under their own real name and at least one other under an assumed name.
These nickname profiles will enable people to be themselves online without fear. To vent. To talk about books, songs, movies, artists, that are otherwise just “not done”.
They’ll allow people to be on vacation, post to their close friends and relatives and not have the boss expect them to therefore be in reach of the telephone and thus work.
See also: