A while back, Nate brought up the issue of internet names: Are they goofy? Are they meaningless? What do they say about us?
But instead of reading the person from the name, why not look at things the other way, and ask how the name came from the person? What's the origin behind your online handle(s)?
Naming for me has always been a point of importance: What does this name signify, what will it imply? But after reading about Play Money's Radny, and his nonchalant slip of the keys, it occurred to me that naming isn't such serious business for all.
Still, our internet names are unique--they represent possibly the only times in life when we get to decide for ourselves what we'll be called. And where we draw our inspiration for these names says something significant about us: how we want to be seen, understood, defined.
*Pst* This is the part where you tell a story about how you picked your name.
Another thing to remember is that online names become our online faces (even in a visually-rendered world)--or at least our online masks. We can use them to recreate ourselves the way we want to be. Would you believe that FlirtyGrl91 is really 15? Maybe, maybe not. And what does it say about a person who chooses to make their age a part of their 6-10 character identity?
Or, consider another example: You're presenting cross-gender online. How do you pick your cross-gender name? A feminized/masculinized version of your own? Something simple, so that you don't stand out? Or something outlandishly gendered, in hopes of making the most convincing performance?
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