internet privilege.

[I’m always uncomfortable writing about privilege as a concept, in large part because I’m a straight, middle class male, and therefore likely have a blind spot to some of the role privilege plays in my own life. But, I do feel that this needs to be said.]

I’ve been getting angry as I listen to the debate about anonymity, pseudonyms, and multiple identities online.

One of the things that derails tech-utopianism, is the face that it definitely seems like most of the platforms we’re using have been created by groups that are majority white, western, middle class male.

I’m pointing this out because it’s simple to see that most of the people weighing in and saying that people who want to use a fake name, or an obvious pseudonym, or multiple identities, have something to hide, or are being dishonest, or are being immature.

Identity isn’t as simple as you’re making it out to be.

Identity, online or off, is like a prism. The same beam of light can hit it, but if the angle changes, different colours are thrown off. A person is not the same with one peer group, as they are with another. They are not the same with their family, as they are with friends. They are not the same at work, as they are at home.

They are the same person, yes. But identity is fluid.

The thing is, when you (and I’m including myself in this) live in a society where the top line points of your identity (gender, sexuality, race, political affiliations / beliefs, etc) are not going to be persecuted, or when you are not in a situation where you could be ostracised from your family and friends due to revelations about your identity (I’m thinking specifically of sexual orientation or gender presentation, but this could also relate to politics and beliefs) it makes sense to think like Mark Zuckerberg, who has stated that anyone who wants more than one facebook identity is sketchy (paraphrasing).

But that’s because you, and most of the people making these arguments, have the (rather fantastic) privilege of not NEEDing to separate the different elements of their personas into different identities.

Not everyone has this benefit.

So, before I read another justification from Google or Facebook that tries to argue their stance is about anything beyond maintaining the purity of the data set they sell to advertisers, and before I read another pundit saying that the new reality of technology is that all actions will be aggregated and attached to your identity, I ask one very simple thing.

Consider people who don’t have all of the benefits you do, when you think about the impact of technologies on society, identity, and self-conception.

Because the people who benefit from things like multiple online identities, or pseudonyms, are rarely the people who are in a position to steer a globally popular platform, or criticize it to a massive audience.