Tuesday, October 18, 2005

Blogger Anonymous

Why the anonymity? I've been asked this question a million times , and have never found satisfying answers for it. It just feels like the right thing to do. I could try to reason my way out and come up with some supporting reasons, but the whole idea of blogging , for me, is to keep reasoning and a few other things in their rightful places. I blog to forget my physical existence for sometime. To connect with a larger reservoir of energy as I type on.
The concept of anonymity was not even under question. It was THE only way to go for me. I started questioning it only recently.


Most of the times, it's a certain thought I would scribble about, and that, to me , is a universal entity. Any body can have a thought. ( Alright, we knew that..). But to tag these very thoughts with identities and to post them as belonging to this physical entity reiterates facts that I am only too aware of. Seeing my name right below the post, would take me right back to the world I am trying to look out of. That sense of oneness I get, is lost. At least diminished. When I see something as vague as white_carnation after posting, I'm okay, because some seemingly distant entity just unleashed one more thought out there on the web. It isn't escapism, though I was highly inclined to believe that. It's just about following free will and per chance avoiding something that tends to diminish my awareness of the larger picture.

It doesn't matter WHAT kind of topic I post about. It also doesn't count that I don't keep up to blogging statistics that people 'expect'. What matters is whether I was able to look at a peacock and at least paint out a crow. Nevermind that part about visual appeasement. I'm only speaking of nearness and approximation.

It also doesn't matter WHO made that post. The author doesn't matter to anybody, not even to me. What matters is whether you related with any aspect of the crow or the peacock or with the concept of flying or dancing in the rain. Even that, matters only to one who reads. You.

Not to me, really. It does feel good or bad, but it doesn't really MATTER.
To quote Kansas Brothers, " All we are is dust in the wind". So are our thoughts.

Sure, blogging is a good way to network and all . But for contact to be useful, it should be established only with mutual consent. And I've met quite a few fantastic people through the net.
There isn't any anonymity beyond a point. The truth is out there. And this is what I see of it. There's plenty of good out there. But as a brief snapshot of what's in my head at some instant, I don't think a digital or a physical signature does much. I myself probably won't stand up for these thoughts since they keep changing. But I don't feel the need to legally sign below. It's just too much of a stamp for me. Ownership is never the issue.

Analysis, feelings, thoughts....
these are little bridges one builds. Why name some of them after myself.... Does it matter if it is the Howrah or a nameless yet beautiful hanging bridge near Parapady? Such fleeting entities, I wonder why I would weigh them down with my physical existence.

After all this, I'm still anon only because it feels okay. Logic notwithstanding. :)

4 comments:

whitecarnation said...

:) thanks! Doing good? btw, Chetan Bhagat's coming up with a new book. Let me know if you haven't recieved that mail yet.

whitecarnation said...

sent you that mail.

Camphor said...

I think I relate. I worked very hard to keep myself anonymous. And along came someone who knew me well enough to identify me by the way I wrote etc. Cover blown. I still don't sign off by my RL name, but I'm now in the shadows - there are those who knew who I am, and those who don't.

What those people don't understand, and you do, is that who I am does not matter, really. I might claim to be someone I am not, but in the long run, it doesn't mattter.

whitecarnation said...

Hi Camphor,
:)
Hiding from people is not a reason to be anonymous. I've never held any information back when asked for it. So it's okay if people find their way to the post.

It's eventually not about people.

I don't HAVE any cover to blow, but I answer truthfully only when the question of ownership arises. When it doesn't, formlessness is what I seek.