When I was in high school, I kept a diary. A pen and paper diary, that I kept hidden. My little brother found it, and entertained his buddies by reading excerpts from it.
Turns out that more than one woman I know has had a similar experience. My neighbor, for instance.
We, like many, have concerns over privacy and are not entirely trustful with diaristic blogging. I have written before (see Think of your reputation, my dear) that I do guard my personas, depending on what social media platform I am writing.
Having recently finished Dr. Dennen's Constructing academic alter-egos: identiy issues in a blog-based community, I wonder how I might develop another identity, should I continue wandering through the blogosphere.
I might not use my own name, my last name being fairly identifyable. And it would be fun to come up with a new one.
I would definately change the graphic design of my template, but that is more a matter of familiarity with blogging template. And I already have my Bitmoji avatar.
My voice and content? Actually, both are more authentic in my blogs than in my face-to-face "office lady" life. When I shake off the feeling that I should be writing miniature scholarly papers, my voice rings truer here than it often does face-to-face.
I am fortunate that I could take on a pseudoidentity at a later time, but don't think I need to do so. However, to quote Doris Day, "the future's not ours to see."* There may come a time when I wish to blog beyond bounds of professional or even political seemliness. If such a time comes, the norms of pseudoidentify in blog-based communities will have a comforting familiarity.
* The Man Who Knew Too Much, directed by Alfred Hitchcock, 1956.
