My name is, what? The SteemIt Name Challenge - @sorin.cristescu
Introductory rant
It all started with @GINAbot, a nice Discord bot that I use for notifications. It could have started differently because recently other tools have added notifications, including busy.org (where I prefer to blog because of the centralized storage of drafts) and steemworld.org by @steemchiller, which has a cool user interface.
Anyway, @Ginabot let me know that @dragosroua mentioned me in a post. I have great respect for Dragos so I went to check : he had nominated me for the #steemitnamechallenge !
I found this challenge highly relevant to my vision for Steem: the vision of a mini-society, of a socio-economic medium, as I detail in a recent post, "Steemit and the Fractal Society".
Science shows that predictable behaviour and cooperative behaviour are the cement of society. If other people are to trust you, they need to be able to predict, with a certain accuracy, how you'll behave under certain circumstances. The only way they can do that is by looking at your past reactions and behaviours. Thus they need a "mental mapping" where the key is, for instance, your name (or your face) and the values associated with this key are all your past behaviours that the other guys know about.
Thus hiding your real name and your face increases your personal freedom (you can do what you want and not be held to account) but in exchange ... inhibits the creation of social bonds.
Aren't you bored to death yet?
If you aren't, here we go:
Tell us in a post how you chose the current Steemit username you have. The story behind it.
By now you should be able to guess: my Steemit user name is my real name.
I chose it deliberately. Behind this choice is an implicit pledge I am taking toward the whole community:
- I pledge to behave responsibly and not act in a way that I might later be ashamed of in real life
- I am not afraid to stand by my opinions; they might be wrong but were offered in good faith.
Also, when anyone reads my opinions, they are free to go out on the Internet and try to find out more about me, understand my background and the context in which I formed the opinions I express, my experiences, my biases, my limitations.
An important question is: isn't that a risk, using my real name ? Yes it is, clearly. I am taking a risk, I am choosing to be vulnerable. This is the very definition of trust, that most basic ingredient of society:
“… the intention to accept vulnerability based upon positive expectations of the intentions or behaviors of another (Rousseau et al., 1998).”
I trust your good intentions, I trust that you don't want to harm me, just as I don't want to harm you, I trust that you will not abuse my trust.
Tell us your real name!
If you could change your current username, which name would you choose and why? If you have a possible usernames list, mention it!
If I was a bit circumspect about steemit, feared it was a scam maybe, I would have used another username, something chosen at random, at the inspiration of a moment.
Nominate 5 people for this challenge
@lishu
@kyriacos
@smooth
@roelandp
@gtg
In Conclusion
Read my posts and comment, engage, let's live through the slogan
"Come for the rewards, Stay for the community!"
A little late reply but anyway, interesting thoughts.
Another side of the coin is, there is way too much snooping from tech companies all over the world. they want everything about us, every detail, then they use powerful algorithms, to learn more about us, to know more about us than we do. It is not enough to collect, use and resell the data we give them, they are becoming more and more intrusive about harvesting data. They want everything, which other tabs I have open in my browser, my passwords... enough is enough.
I'm one of the ones, that like and respect privacy. I'm in the process to set up computer with Qubes Linux, where every session is isolated. You tube for example will not even get my IP any more.
So, you can see, how one would be reluctant to share online real name, real data in this crazy world we are living in lately.
I see very well what you mean. That's why I'm a big fan of self-sovereign identity, about which I've written in previous articles,
Sovereign identity on blockchain
and
Blockchain identity and the split personality of Peer Mountain
Here I chose to use my real-life identity because I've decided to act on this platform in a way that is compatible and consistent with how I act in real life. My full image (including what can be gathered from this platform) has both positive (for me) and negative uses (if used by those who would want to harm me). It's a trade-off.
I chose to see the glass half-full ...
I feel the same way, actually. Truth be told, I have kids to think about. I don't want them stumbling on something I wrote and wondering if I'm being a hypocrite in real life. I also have other standards to uphold, spiritual ones, as well as academic and professional. I figure, unless you're a total loser or jerk, just be the way on here as you are in real life. My experience is that most people on here are pretty true to form.
I could have sworn that you have kids after watching your video about passwords - by the very "motherish" way in which you said : "If you haven't done so, do it now !" :-)
I'm pretty sure you also have people who play with building a complete persona from scratch, it's enticing to try to invent yourself a totally different past and life. This is a parallel universe here
Yeah. I've met a few. And honestly, I can't say I blame them. But what they will find is that they're still the same person, and they will run into the same problems here as they will elsewhere as far as integrity and personality goes. They will be attracted to the same kinds of people and conversations and content here as they are in "real life." They will have the same habits of thinking and behaving here as they do in real life. The difference is, this place offers more opportunity to be ones self without the limits of convention and daily grind.
For example, at my state job, for instance, I couldn't bust out in red lipstick and lipsync to Stayin' Alive. I mean, my coworkers would probably think that was normal for me, but I certainly wouldn't get paid to do it!
I was also considering using my real name, but Steemit is more than a blogging platform. Personal investments are something that I believe must remain confidential, and I know from the past that there were cases when mafia tracked real names to crypto accounts holding millions. On STEEM everything we publish is public, and it can never be removed.
Yep, one has to carefully weigh the pros and cons. I'm very far from having millions and I intend to publish things that I would have liked to publish under my name anyway. I've always dreamt of being a successful writer (fiction or non-fiction).
Do you think Ernest Hemingway or William Faulkner or Mario Vargas Llosa or ... any of the great writers have hesitated much by fear that associating their real names with their writings might have adverse consequences to them ?
Not a fair question. They did not have the constraints of the internet and technology that we have today. And by "constraints" I mean just that: we have bridged the gap of time, space, privacy, and information in ways that were unheard of in their time and that can act as a hindrance for truth, ironically. Were those authors alive today, they might have taken pseudonyms. Nobody famous likes people in their personal business, least of all authors like Hemmingway and Faulkner.
I attended the same school at about the same time with Marie Darrieussecq, a pretty famous French contemporary author. She has not taken a pseudo.
more about Marie here
The same school (at about the same time, give or take two years) as another French litterary star, Eliette Abécassis
More about Eliette here
The same school at the same time as the most recent French Fields medalist, Cedric Villani
More about Cedric here
None of them uses a pseudo when writing.
Well, if I were a famous writer, I think I would use a pseudo, but mostly because I don't have a really cool French name like Eliette. I would probably go by something like Yvette or Claudette, or mabye Adelaide. And with a last name like Villani or Darrieussecq, I mean, how can you go wrong???
Where did you go to school? These are all quite accomplished individuals. And not just accomplished, but rather innovative and revolutionary in their respective fields. Such serious work they do.
I must say, that kind of work would require a real name. How could you not?
No way, man. I don't want some weirdo tracking me down. I mean, granted, it's not that hard to do if you're really determined. But I've had my fair share of grief in that regard. I like the pseudo-anonymity here. It gives me a fresh start. I don't like people in my business. I had a bad experience with that. That being said, I'm very much a face-value kind of a gal. So what you see is pretty much what you get.
There is something called psychology.
source
Weirdos are usually men. Ever wondered how men brains function ? Think Victoria's Secret.
Why this arouses more than a naked body ? Because it hides enough to seem challenging, enticing.
The best to hide is in plain sight. If your name is "littlescribe" the hunter-gatherer brain starts beeping: there's something to hunt and gather. If your pseudo is "Amanda Rosen" for instance there's no interest in going further, nothing left to discover.
When confronted with a lion in the savannah, stand still, do not run. Only prey run.
OK. Well....that's a good argument. I don't have a comeback to that. Other than, I have been stalked and harassed. And it's awful. And I prefer to eliminate that likelihood, while still allowing some freedom to be me. That being said, who am I kidding? I ain't no clandestine woman or anything. I'm pretty much out there wherever I go.
Are you aware of the other sorin cristescu in Bucharest?
I saw this guy on FB. He looks like he pulled the pic from a modeling company. I wonder if it's really him...
He's hot. Then again, Romanian girls are hot too, so I guess one has to do what one has to do. I'm not worried about the Sorins Cristescus in Bucharest as I don't live there. The only Sorin Cristescu I worry about is the very friendly guy who works in the same organization. He's getting my mails and I get his. People talk on the phone as if they are talking to him while talking to me and I suspect the opposite also happens. It's pretty annoying.
Nice post as always @sorin.cristescu, quite brave to use your own name.
Keep up the good work!