Just imaginym…

Tateru Nino, on her blog, was recently discussing Google’s emergent policy toward usernames for their Google+ social networking service and confirming that Google, like Facebook, would prefer real-life names and not invented usernames (as from Second Life or similar) to be used.  Coincidentally I’d been thinking about this earlier in the day and figured we need to have the whole idea of an invented online presence taken more seriously and maybe we need a term for it.

We already accept a ‘nom de plume’ from authors, we’re familiar with pseudonyms, so why not create a term for virtual or online presences too that would formalise the idea and, in the minds of some, might give it a bit of validation?  I first suggested virtuanym but then after thinking about it more stumbled onto imaginym and I like that one better – sums it up nicely, a name for an invented imaginary version of yourself you use online.  Eris Strangelove is my imaginym, he’s related to (but very different from) my real-life self and deliberately so.  I don’t have anything to hide but I do value my privacy and really see the whole thing as a creative act – I made up a person to be in Second Life in the same way I might have invented a character for a novel or screenplay.

So what’s the real problem with these imaginyms?  Why are Facebook and now Google so determined to prevent their users identifying themselves this way?  Is it because it makes it more fun for everyone to use real names?  Nope, it’s the old story – money.  Facebook is in the business of leeching every bit of personal information it can get from its users, information it then monetises.  They have to keep that information as ‘pure’ as they can in order to maintain its commercial value, this is why they’re so obsessed with verifying the real-life identities of their users and why they ruthlessly suspend and delete accounts believed to be anything other than ‘real’.  The agenda here is just another company protecting its revenue stream and has virtually nothing to do with servicing the needs or desires of their users.

I still cannot believe that Facebook even has so many users willing, lemming-like, to hand over their personal info in return for so little, but I should save that rant for another day…

POST-SOUND: Biosphere’s latest (and prophetic) album now available…