Outing your internet self to the world

[iAmNothing]

This may look like my first post here on The Escapist, but that's not the case. I've been a member of The Escapist for since 2009 and have made many hundreds of posts in my time. However, recently I have had to abandon my old account in favour of this new one because of the unwanted attention it suddenly attracted from people I knew IRL.

So, time for the point of this forum: if your internet presence were to suddenly be announced to everyone that you knew IRL, how would you react? Would you be ashamed? Proud? Anything at all.

And I mean everything; every site membership, every forum post, every blog entry, the lot.

 

[The Shadowlord]

Depends. Is it just how I act on The Escapist? Or on the internet as a whole? Because if it's the latter, then may the gods have mercy on me. It's irritating enough when people find my YouTube account, I'd rather they don't find out everything else.

 

[sky14kemea]

My IRL friends know I'm on an internet forum and stuff..... :/

And I left school ages ago, so it's not like anyone else can do anything about it.

 

[Jonluw]

Most people I know know I do stuff on the internet, I think.
It's problematic every now and then when I forget that I'm not completely anonymous and end up writing confidential information on here and then letting my friends read the thread.

And the last time I made a funny post on the internet, I let my family see it.

 

[Erana]

Oh god oh god OH GOD THEY KNOW I'M A GAMER.

And no, I'm not being sarcastic. That would cause a lot of drama for me and my mother and would potentially really screw things up for me with my art.

So yeah, I don't have anything to be ashamed of by normal people standards, (I don't even look at porn) but I don't have normal people close circumstances.

 

[JoJo]

I don't think it would be that bad, assuming it didn't include some of the private messages I've sent. Most of my close friends know about this account and that I spend a lot of time here, for all I know they could be reading this post right now. While there's a few posts which I might be embarrassed by for admitting things or opinions I wouldn't say in real life, realistically they are so drowned out by the 4000 plus innocuous posts that I've made on this site that the chances are they would never find them.

 

[Scarim Coral]

Oh boy there going be alot of talks with my friends (including the ones I cut ties with) and my brother. Oh they would alos know I'm a brony (well my closest firends already know that), big deal.

 

[Chased]

Nothing would happen. I used to post elsewhere years ago and this internet mask is fairly boring.

 

[Suicidejim]

If anything, I'd have to live down the shame of actually being polite to people rather than indulging my usually sarcastic and bitter nature. That's about it.

EDIT: Correction, the BDSM stuff might lead to some awkwardness, but other than that, squeaky clean.

 

[Goofguy]

Sure, there are things I say online that I probably wouldn't say IRL. The relative anonymity can embolden anyone, really. However, I wouldn't be ashamed if it got out to my friends and family. If anything, most wouldn't care because they already know the type of person I am.

 

[GoaThief]

*EDIT*

Nevermind.

 

[Pebblig]

snipsies

I wouldn't like everyone knowing everything (especially what I do on Youtube and stuff), suppose you feel you have less to hide on the internets due to the anonymity.

 

[Vault101]

hmmmm

(for some reason) I once used facebook to comment in somthing here..which to my horror linked it to my facebook account

I dont want facebook all up in my shit thankyouvery much...I like anonimity

and no one knows me much in real life anyway...

 

[Catfood220]

My internet presence is pretty low, I refuse to join Facebook due to the fact that I don't want to. There are pictures online of me if anyone cares enough to track down one of my friends.

The only places I post on the Internet these days are The Escapist forums and The Download Festival forums, so if anyone wants to see my opinion of the Mass Effect 3 demo or Download Festival line up are welcome to them.

 

[CrazyBlaze]

I wouldn't care. I don't act all that much different IRL than the internet. I see no reason to. I am who I am and I really don't care. I try to anyways. Most of my friends now that I play games and that I go on game sites.

 

[Tazzy da Devil]

Mostly I wouldn't care. My friends found my Neopets account a while back though, and that was kind of embarrassing.

 

[Tiger Sora]

Well certainly some shall be surprised at what I like. Not that I care what people think of me, which is good. I'd live.

 

[Scrustle]

This may look like my first post here on The Escapist, but that's not the case. I've been a member of The Escapist for since 2009 and have made many hundreds of posts in my time. However, recently I have had to abandon my old account in favour of this new one because of the unwanted attention it suddenly attracted from people I knew IRL.

So, time for the point of this forum: if your internet presence were to suddenly be announced to everyone that you knew IRL, how would you react? Would you be ashamed? Proud? Anything at all.

And I mean everything; every site membership, every forum post, every blog entry, the lot.

Why would you need to make new accounts because people you know IRL found out about them? What kind of unwanted attention could you get?

OT: I've never had a problem with talking about my online persona. I don't talk about it much to people I know IRL simply because I know they mostly don't care about the kind of stuff I do online. I'm not proud or ashamed. It's just a part of me and what I spend my free time on. Sometimes it feels a bit awkward to talk about it to someone who I don't think will understand, but I don't usually have any reason to talk about it to people who I know aren't interested.