Heathervescent: A Contrarian’s View of Identity — Only Real Names
When I was at IIW earlier this week, I held a session called, “A Contrarian View of Identity: Envision a World with Only Real Names.”
The ground rules of this session were:
- There is no discussion. We are starting with the assumption that real names are the only reality.
- No dystopian or negative perspectives (relieved this for last 5 minutes of info gathering)
I then asked those in the room to close their eyes. Take a deep breath. Envision all of the identities that you use online and out in the world. See them moving to the middle and coming together, becoming one identity, and that name is your real legal name. If there is any negativity coming up with this, just put it aside for the moment. Sit with this vision of your identity as your real legal name. Take another deep breath. Pause. Now open your eyes.
