What is up with the forthcoming honesty on the Internet?

Maybe it’s the same impulse as talking to a stranger on a train. Years ago, when I was about 12 and going to visit my grandmother, I went by train. An older woman sat down next to me and told me everything about her life, private and intimate things. She knew she would never see me again. It was kind of weird and nice in a way. But I have always thought afterwards about the relief of being able to talk to a perfect stranger who takes your words and carries them away.

It’s the fact that you won’t have to face the person again the next day. And perhaps it also helps that you don’t have to look them in the face as you talk.

I can’t say, personally. Whatever I talk about online I’m also willing to talk about in person. It’s one of my life lessons that I learned – to not be ashamed of who I am, what I think or what I believe. I stay true to myself. :)

There are some things that we have to say to someone but that we can’t have heard by anyone. Sometimes I feel like I’ve bugged a confessional booth.

That’s another reason I keep my picture on my avtar, to remind myself that there is NO ANONYMITY here!

The anoniminity of the internet. It is one of the few places where you can say anything, do anything, without it impacted your life (usually).

@Judi: Just a quick correction. It’s avatar, not avtar. =P

@Eambos maybe in Judy’s world, it is spelled avtar. I’ve seen people misspell masturbation and a dozen other words, I’ll assume it is a local dialect or personal preference. :-)

And really, who’s to say everything being said is actually honest?

@Eambos: Well, Flutherer, heal thyself. ( “anoniminity”?)

Sorry! I knew i misspelled it, but forgot to go back and change the letters =/ I need to slow down.

v Me too, Judi, me too. v

Now the world knows I can’t spell!

I misspell too! Google Chrome has spell check, it is my frend. jk

So does Firefox! I just forgot to fix it…

I just gave in and got an iphone and am lucky my fat fingers work at all!

Because it’s anonymous.

I mean, really! Do you think essieness’ real name is essieness? Gove me a break!

I don’t know what “goveing” is, but it looks cool, so I’m leaving it. @gailcalled Nanny, nanny, boo boo

Damn! I crack myself up!

But everyone knows I’m crazy, anyway. So who cares?

bipolar disorder, and congenital logorrhea

@daloon, there’s a special place in my heart for crazy people.

I’m with @DrasticDreamer. I don’t go out of my way to divulge my personal identity, but I am very forthcoming about some things that could very easily be traced to me. I’m fine with that. I don’t have anything to hide.

And… there are times when I don’t share something here that I deem to be too personal. But that is more about my not wanting you all to know something, not the people in my life. You all are real people, and a real community, to me.

Daloon isn’t as crazy as he claims, as he is often lurved. REAL crazy people like myself, insist that the faux crazy people stop pretending to be nutjobs. Crazy people don’t get much lurve, unless it is from other crazy people. That’s who gives me all my lurve, you know. I wonder if I can get in trouble by the Almighty moderators for hijacking the thread on my own question?

@evelyns_pet_zebra: Where’s your certificate? Huh? Huh? I’ve got mine framed on my wall. Proves I’m crazy. Gold seal, and all.

must say it is a terrible relief to have an excuse for being so weird

Like some others, there is nothing I’ve talked about here that I wouldn’t talk about in ‘real life’. I am an open book, and what you see is what you get :)

@daloon certificate? I don’t need a certificate, I have an entire wing of the local Asylum for the Criminally Insane named after me, and NOT because I donated money to have it built. Certificate? Oh Pul-eeeease. The Z Wing is named after me.

@evelyns_pet_zebra: Well, I wasn’t going to say this, because, by nature, I am a modest person, but you have forced my hand. I’m sure you’ve all heard of the Daloon International Center for Advanced Research in Mental Disorders housed in the United Nations complex in Bern, Switzerland. Well, obviously, I am the Daloon it is named after.

As with you, it’s not named after me because of my donations, since I haven’t worked a day in my life. And, don’t go thinking I inherited money. I’m a test tube baby. No silver tongue in my mouth. It’s Medicare for me, all the way. They discovered so much about the nature of mental illness from the study of my brain, that they named the center after me. And, of course, my name is certainly appropriate. I’m not sure I consider it an honor, but there it is.

By the way, there is also a branch of the center on the moon. Luna, of course, being my natural home. I know. I’ve been there. So don’t try to tell me otherwise!

@daloon, fine, you are crazier than I am, but, I can’t see why that would be something to be proud of. And next time you are on the moon, do me a favor, ask the invisible pink unicorns why they won’t return my calls. I knew that being easy and cheap had its drawbacks, but who knew that invisible pink unicorns would ignore me after the wonderful first date that we had. I should have known that dating deities would come to no good.

@evelyns_pet_zebra A zebra wondering why a unicorn won’t call him back? Enough said!

I don’t say anything on the internet that I wouldn’t say in person (not including to my parents or someone who could get me in trouble; COMPLETELY different situations). The relative anonymity has a lot to do with it, and I know I am honest on fluther to achieve the mission of the collective. If someone wants to know about sex or drugs, I’ll share my knowledge with them and be honest about it because that is the goal of the site, plain and simple.