Oddbean

there are countries where people can get killed for what they say online, the First Amendment offers them no protection using real names on the internet for social was a mistake, the only people it benefits are influencers

As I said in the post, there are times and places for it. For most of us, IMO that is not the case, and we help bring about a state of affairs where it is the case by not standing up for our rights under our real names.

your post though?? “The anonymous handles, then, are soon-to-be-discarded relics of centralized platforms en route to a real public square, protected by the First Amendment and enforced by an unstoppable protocol.” I find this to be true and important, Freedom is “[t]he ability not to have an identity that one carries from sphere to sphere but, rather, to be able to slip in and adopt whatever values and norms are appropriate while retaining one’s identities in other domains[.]” (Elizabeth Anderson, American philosopher) This is much harder to do if you use your real name on social.

That’s an opinion, worth thinking about, but I would define it a bit differently. I like the idea of integrity in the literal sense where you are the same person publicly and privately. That’s freedom to me, not having to pander to the particular crowd du jour. It’ll make some people mad, but how can you be free if you need everyone not to be mad at you?

perhaps, but some people have different interest and share their values with different people for specific reasons public/private doesn’t scale on social and one dimensional public characters still seem to add value to the conversation, but not everyone wants to be rewarded for that financially by giving up their anonymity online encouraging people “to selectively reveal oneself to the world” also helps others maintain their privacy