I was having a conversation with my friends when my friend's phone rang, his mother was calling, I overheard their conversation (unintentionally) and his mother said, "Oh, your friend is a blogger".
My friend laughed and said yes.
I never revealed my website to anyone in my personal life and never showed my written posts in different platfoms such as Medium and Hive, but it was an awkward situation for me knowing that I am not that confident with my written posts.
This image is made and designed by the author using Canva
Imposter's syndrome always hits me in this kind of situation, afraid that poeple that I know personally might laugh at my work and judge me for writing and expressing my opinions.
Writing under your real name sounds like a good idea.
All of the credits is under your name, the pride, and building your credibility.
You will get everything when you write non-anonymously.
I was happy when my friends are telling me that they see me as a good example for beinga "hustler" in life as a student, trying to earn money while studying, the excitement of writing my name as an author of my first short e-book.
I love the idea of building my online presence on the internet, hoping that I will get a freelance job for doing so.
However, following this path will potentially bring you to a mistake when everything suddenly backfires to you.
Imagine you went to a party, you were having fun with your friends and colleagues when suddenly, one of your conservative friend who read your post about "Using a condom will save your life" talks about it, and disagree with some of your points.
Some people are still conservative and think of those topics as taboo, hence, you cannot openly discuss it to them. Imagine how awkward will it be.
Sometimes, there are topics that I want to discuss, I want to express my opinion, and ideas that I want to share. But my situation makes me feel hesitant to write and publish it because people who might know me in person might disagree and judge me when they read it.
There are also times that before hitting the publish button, I will have second-thoughts, "what if my friend read this?", it creates fear and lower your confidence as a writer if you always limit yourself to write anything if you are always thinking about these things.
Also, writing non-anonymously can give you anxiety when it comes to your online security.
Last week, I received an email regarding to my website. The sender told me that I might be having trademark issues if they will use my domain as their name but with different extension. And for this, I could buy those domain names to avoid the issues and full own my current domain.
At first, I was afraid that it can affect me legally. And then I found out that those are just scams online trying to milk out your pocket.
Another event is when someone that I did not know was sending me private messages on my personal account [in Facebook messenger], which I find uncomfortable.
Experiencing those events makes me feel uncomfortable and leads me into thinking and mindset if writing non-anonymously is worth it knowing that I never get a client because of my website which was my first goal when I started it.
Why anonymity might have been better?
Imagine if you write anonymously, you can always talk and write anything without having anxiety. You can always write with what is viral and worth to write, you don't have to think that people might judge and criticize your work. You don't have to overthink to commit mistakes (that you can correct later).
Sometimes, I want to talk and write my opinions about controvesial topics such as religion and politics, but me, revealing myself on the internet, limits it.
Who am I to write taboo topics if I am afraid of criticism?
In hindsight, writing non-anonymously taught me about being confident with your work and being careful with your words before hitting publish button.
Writing anonymous VS non-anonymous has their own pros and cons.
Think of this situation: Some anonymous writers are writing anything what they want. joining the wave of what is trending with the hopes of going viral. Sometimes this kind of act is just like chasing money over sharing informative articles based on facts. And those are causing the spread of fake news which is one of the toxic problems on the internet.
In showing yourself on the internet, you build your credibility that might be helpful for you in long-term especially if you are looking for a job or gigs; sometimes, I do this - attaching my website into my application form to show my portfolio and previous works.
While I regret this kind of setup of my writing career, I know that there might be more opportunities waiting for me soon. The discomfort is just part of the process, now, I learned how to overcome it.
Whether you write anonymously or not, you should be aware that you can change everything. It has a power to educate and inform others. You have the power to express your ideas, what you need is the right place to share it.
I think anonymous or not we should write what we want because it’s our voice. We need to understand the consequences if we write something that’s not a good topic and can do things to potentially mitigate the damage or issues related to it. Writing what we want though is important because it goes back to free speech - we need to be able to speak freely to uncover ideas and things that we need to do differently or modify to grow and be better people and societies.
Having to self censor is not a good thing for that in the long run!
Well, I agree with you. But I am not that confident yet to write everything I want, I am still afraid of what people will say. Maybe I will overcome it soon.