Thank you both. I appreciate it.
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I think journaling under a pseudonym is the way to go. Itās probably not a great idea to write your irl name next to your innermost fears and insecurities. As long as you donāt publish personally identifying information, the chances of a malicious actor exploiting your insecurities for personal gain are low. Not impossible, but quite unlikely.
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In my case itās a bit late for that.
So I just lean into it. Somebody threatened to dox me yesterday and I just laughed at them.
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I mean, you certainly canāt be doxed if everything is out in the public already. My face and my name have been online for a decade and a half at this point and literally nothing bad happened.
I gave away my address to a bunch of random people and what I got in return were a series of nice letters, one lovely print I still need to hang on the wall, and a great japanese set to do tea ceremony.
If someone were to decide to come to my door step the worst thing that can happen is that theyād be mauled by my silly dog.
But again, different people in different circumstances can totally have different outcomes so your suggestion to keep everything private is certainly valid.
Things are different in the US; there are a lot of people here that I would not want as guests, and my threat model would be very different if I wasnāt somebody who can fake being a cishet white Christian dude.
Nevertheless, I still wish I had thought to publish my fiction under a pseudonym and keep my ātrue nameā off the network. Even if my magicks canāt be undone by anybody who knows it.
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Oh I donāt doubt that which is why I keep saying that it mostly comes down to each individual set of circumstances and also why details matter a lot when discussing this type of stuff. Thereās no right answer unfortunately.
Thanks everyone for the ongoing discussion, yeah I think Iām in the camp of journaling more personal stuff under a pseudonym. But I am making something right now with this username attached to it, where Iāll just write about stuff I like and nothing too personal.
I used to believe that growing up meant violently taking a messy heart from a clean white sleeve and shoving the redness deeper in where, far from the publicās vulgar eye, safe under layers of leathery skin, it bled discreetly. But lately Iām struck by the dignity of full disclosure, the glory of loud, mad lovers who lay their lives on the line and carry their hearts through the scandalized crowd crying, Like it or not, this mangled thing is mine. āRachel Wetzsteon, āBut for the Graceā
I think people who share openly and vulnerably online are wonderful and brave and that to use anything that they offer us against them is to kill a mockingbird.
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