The mixing of personal, professional, and private space

"The coming out stories of anonymous bloggers"

I agree with political blogger Jeanne Devon when she says, '"There are things that you know, or that you feel sort of in your heart of hearts, that you might not want to put out there in a public way" with your name attached, she said. "If people always spoke without filters, we'd learn a lot more."

I personally think it's unfortunate that we can't keep an anonymous persona online. Despite bloggers best attempts, the article discusses ways in which anonymous online identities may be exposed and why previous bloggers may decide to reveal their identities.

An attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Matt Zimmerman, who "advocates for the rights of anonymous speech" said that there is no 100% effective way to hide
due to a technological footprint. If technology itself doesn't expose someone courts can force people out of online anonymity. The requirements for doing so however are not yet clear. For instance, a court could determine that legal action filed against a blogger is enough to expose them but another court might require proof that the blogger defamed someone.

Like many others, Virginia Montanez or "Pittgirl" determined that she wanted to be the one to come out as her real self before someone else outed her real identity. Other bloggers choose to expose themselves like the famous Heather Armstrong of dooce.com. She states "I think if you're doing something anonymously you've got some issues going on...There's a reason that you're hiding." Despite Montanez initally choosing to be anonymous and Armstrong being public, they both have one thing in common - their controversial blogs got them fired from their jobs.

However, Armstrong says that the benefits regarding writing as herself outway the bad. She references the support she received from the online community when she suffered from postpartum depression. Likewise, political blogger Jeanne Devon said that she felt more support from her community after being outed.

The major takeaways from this article are:
1) Online anonymity is difficult to maintain
2) A public persona - by choice or by force - has both its benefits and consequences.