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< Aliases are hard, perhaps impossible, on the modern Web

~shoebx

Hi ~detritus, that's very interesting! I think we had similar, yet almost opposite experiences. I had a "big" public alias for most of the time, and you the opposite; it's really nice seeing this point of view!

Anonymous media sounds nice indeed, although I'm not sure how much I could "live" only with them; I think I'd "solidify" at least a few of them and build a "big" alias soon, I tend to attach quite easily to people.

I guess that's my biggest concern: how do you handle emotions when, in a way, nobody knows you (and in the case of anonymous media, you know nobody)? I think I'd get attached to somebody, become friend with them and see them disappear eventually without notice. That'd hurt quite a bit if it were my only way of interacting with people, I think.

I'm really curious for more details on this kind of experience.

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~detritus wrote (thread):

I think I'd get attached to somebody, become friend with them and see them disappear eventually without notice. That'd hurt quite a bit if it were my only way of interacting with people, I think.

You are right about that, it has happened to me quite a few times already. I used to join an irc channel where I started making friendships, but one by one they started fading. Actually I think it was me who disappeared for a while, as I started doing other things in life, I moved to a new city, and I couldn't stay in touch. When I got back, the little community wasn't there anymore.

I have had similar experiences many times, sometimes I'd make a friend on a platform I wouldn't keep using, and eventually I would leave that platform and lose that friend. Some other time a girl I was getting along with straight up ghosted me in discord, I am not sure why....

It's sad, but eventually one starts to understand the fleeting nature of online friendships. I have never been too attached to people, honestly. Not that I don't appreciate them, it's just that life is in constant flux. Some of the friends I've made in the past (mostly IRL friends), I don't get along with them anymore, and some of them, even though I still care about them, I can see that we are starting to take different paths, and develop different ideas which make for a big gap in communication between us.

Here in the midnight pub, I am starting to get along with some of the people here, but I know it's not going to last forever, and they or me might disappear at some point, because on each our side of the screen things happen and we do not know each other beyond this platform so we might not even know what happened to the other person.

I like to appreciate the present time, knowing too well that in the future neither of us may still be around...

Kind of a sad note to end this, but I don't think it's actually that sad, as I said, such are the wonders of this unique medium of communication.