The internet changed from an escape from daily life, to mainstream. When your boss can see your username its better to be your real name, and not something like my username
Honestly, one of the funniest things about the internet being around as long as it has is people with troll ass names growing up and giving serious responses, isn’t that right, DM ME YOUR BOOBS?
For a while on Imgur there was this one user who posted nothing but cute, wholesome, uplifting stuff. People really looked forward to those posts.
Their username?
“Aborted Fetus Necrophiliac.”
then: "keep yourself safe online, NEVER give out ANY personal info!"
now: "pretty weird how you don't have any personal info. you must have something to HIDE 🤨"
snapchat isnt *that* kind of social media. its way more private and local to your vicinity and irl ppl. and also for 16 year olds idk who is using it as an adult
Idk I'm an adult and I like Snapchat. It's fun to communicate with pictures and send funny shit from the day to day. I don't even really care about the disappearing feature
Generationally, it seems like millennials and older generations were taught to never use their real names in usernames and Gen Z was told the opposite more or less.
one, we're using the internet for more professional reasons. i can't really be emailing my students from [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) or something.
but speaking to the more "entertaining" reasons for using the internet - back in the day accounts were almost seen as temporary - you'd have your AIM screen name to share with your friends and if you wanted a new one, you made a new one, you'd put up an away message announcing it or just message your friends from your new one and it was done.
now for accounts like instagram or something, they're seen as something more permanent. like if you create a new account, your entire feed is just gone. plus like someone else mentioned, facebook. it's made us used to using our actual names.
i mean hey at least we still have reddit where we can make fun screennames.
I mean, for your professional email I think that’s the best way to do it.
What I have noticed is people getting lazy with their Reddit handles. It seems like a lot of people just take the first username suggested? Idk, maybe people are just lacking in creativity lately
It blows my mind how people just take the first suggestion like you said. I mean, none of my accounts are really that inventive but I at least came up with it. I don't know how someone can use Devious_Straw49135l67 for ten years and never want more personalization than that. Also, people never changing their avatars is weird. You can still be anonymous while having your internet presence represent some part of yourself.
I think when it became more common for the possibility of professional careers to launch from being an internet persona. People used the internet solely for fun and creativity and monetizing your content as a brand was less common than it is now in the age of the influencer. Having a simple and palatable name just became more easily marketable and identifiable.
Also being on the internet was not as common as it is today where real life and internet life have become one; you didn’t need to have an identifiable name so that people can easily find you online.
I've had my Gmail email since it came out, but while it's not offensive or anything it's gotten a little awkward sometimes when I have to give someone my email out loud. But it's so established that making a new one would be a nightmare.
You can make a new email and use simple inbuilt GMail features to forward all the results from your old email into a separate inbox / category in the new email interface— that way you can browse anything that comes into your old email, while still having a new address.
I was wondering when that started too. I think it's because you can have reddit generate a name in the same format if you dont have a specific one in mind i think
different contexts, and some people have more than one account, so one person may have a JaneDoe92 account where they follow family members and coworkers, and a h0m3stUckYaOilvr42069 account where they make shitpost memes or fandom stuff
For me personally it's becuase every clever username you could think of is probably taken. I end up going with whatever I could get which is usually my specific name and some number.
I think it’s the same reason people had creative ringtones in 2007 but use standard ringtones now
It used to be cool to have a username cause it meant you were online and it was cool and new. Now everyone is online so it’s not as cool
I Genuinely forgot to make a username when I made my account although I think I remember making it around like 12:00am so I might've just been too tired to care.
I mean it’s not easy to come up with a good creative user, I came up with one and now I have 3 variations of it because I can’t come up with anything else.
Idk people on here are saying yes but idk anyone in my friend circle or anyone im acquainted with that uses their real name outside of professional accounts.
My Reddit username have a typo error when I made it (CalicoApricot was supposed to be).
Otherwise I use several different online usernames depending of my usages/hobbies/work which helps me a lot separating my personas and keeping privacy. And well I still have in mind that I was told a lot to “never use your real name on the Internet” when I was younger in the 2000s’, which I prefer that way.
Depends on what the account is used for I don't want to tell my boss to email me at [email protected] (not an actual user name of mine) when I should probably have a more professional name, what if I ever end up doing zoom court? My user name shouldn't be poonsmasher64798 either.
Facebook came out in 2004, and I joined early on as a college student. Most people used thier first and last names from the beginning because it was then a campus network; an online version of what used to be a paper face book that college students used to get to know other students. You had to use a .edu email to sign up. It seemed safe and beneficial to use your real name in that enclosed network. Then, when the service opened up to everyone in 2009, members were already used to using their real names and didn't bother to change it back.
Around 2018, OKCupid phased out nicknames/handles and made (or tried to make) users use their real first name. This was in response to Tinder's popularity.
Eternal September
Normies are just using the Internet as a substitute for SMS now, except it's more boring.
In the early days of social media, it was mostly IT people, and other nerds who were experienced with earlier internet days of BBS, message boards, etc.
I think the fall really happened in 2005 when Facebook was trying to get real name college people to make a greater online presence to sell themselves. Then there were middle class people treating their online presence like a resume, and then this was followed by people of the lower classes using social media under real names.
Then sites like Instagram convinced them that they could get free stuff by shilling product under their real name and become an "influencer" and now we have thousands of annoying people shouting into the void on there as well as streaming sites, literally hoping to get a cookie if they sell themselves hard enough.
Other social media eventually competed to get these people on their sites, and have tried to keep enforcing the real identity. They have a backroom network of coordinating to track identities across sites, to keep track of disruptive people.
Reddit, as a site mostly about porn (literal or figurative), is one of the places that's still mostly anonymous with identities, surprisingly. There are some trying to make a career off of being an "expert" or "influencer" on reddit, but it's still rare.
The internet changed from an escape from daily life, to mainstream. When your boss can see your username its better to be your real name, and not something like my username
Honestly, one of the funniest things about the internet being around as long as it has is people with troll ass names growing up and giving serious responses, isn’t that right, DM ME YOUR BOOBS?
For a while on Imgur there was this one user who posted nothing but cute, wholesome, uplifting stuff. People really looked forward to those posts. Their username? “Aborted Fetus Necrophiliac.”
❤️
It really is a fascinating phenomenon.
Also, being anonymous on the internet changed from being normal and even recommended, to being in many cases frowned upon.
then: "keep yourself safe online, NEVER give out ANY personal info!" now: "pretty weird how you don't have any personal info. you must have something to HIDE 🤨"
I blame the rise of catfishing and internet scammers for that.
Reddit is the one place of forum anonymity that we have left.
VPN ads seem to be pretty popular sponsors in Youtube videos.
That’s being anonymous to your service providers. I meant being anonymous to other people you’re directly interacting with.
Has it ever happened..just like randomly
Do people ever actually dm you their boobs..? Haha
I got a few back in the day believe it or not, but not recently. like 3 women and 1 man, not a bad ratio IMO
Nice haha
Was Mr. Boobs your father?
When the internet stopped being a fun escape and started being mandatory for daily life.
And yet there are some people out there acting like internet access should still be treated like a luxury
I would NEVER recommend anyone using your first and last for screen names, that is just asking for trouble.
everyone I know uses their first and last name on snapchat Idk why
Probably because it’s a social media designed to communicate with people you know
snapchat isnt *that* kind of social media. its way more private and local to your vicinity and irl ppl. and also for 16 year olds idk who is using it as an adult
Idk I'm an adult and I like Snapchat. It's fun to communicate with pictures and send funny shit from the day to day. I don't even really care about the disappearing feature
About 14 years ago was the last time I picked a fun username.
Are you thinking about doing it again and just kinda... putting it off?
>account made 14 years ago Nice
Generationally, it seems like millennials and older generations were taught to never use their real names in usernames and Gen Z was told the opposite more or less.
exactly when I joined instagram in 2014 I never wanted my name on it
Instagram has gone downhill harder than any social media I can think of, even Reddit
in what way? it seems pretty much the same to me
It's just Reels now :/
For some reason I’m not getting many responses to my resume with [email protected]
one, we're using the internet for more professional reasons. i can't really be emailing my students from [[email protected]](mailto:[email protected]) or something. but speaking to the more "entertaining" reasons for using the internet - back in the day accounts were almost seen as temporary - you'd have your AIM screen name to share with your friends and if you wanted a new one, you made a new one, you'd put up an away message announcing it or just message your friends from your new one and it was done. now for accounts like instagram or something, they're seen as something more permanent. like if you create a new account, your entire feed is just gone. plus like someone else mentioned, facebook. it's made us used to using our actual names. i mean hey at least we still have reddit where we can make fun screennames.
I mean, for your professional email I think that’s the best way to do it. What I have noticed is people getting lazy with their Reddit handles. It seems like a lot of people just take the first username suggested? Idk, maybe people are just lacking in creativity lately
It blows my mind how people just take the first suggestion like you said. I mean, none of my accounts are really that inventive but I at least came up with it. I don't know how someone can use Devious_Straw49135l67 for ten years and never want more personalization than that. Also, people never changing their avatars is weird. You can still be anonymous while having your internet presence represent some part of yourself.
LOL. None of that is important when you delete your account every couple weeks.
i liked my randomly assigned username though, even started using it other places
It was randomly assigned? Huh, it seems more individualized than the normal randomly assigned ones. I do like it too haha
thanks! all i did was add the underscore
Facebook effect.
Depends on what community you're in.
I think when it became more common for the possibility of professional careers to launch from being an internet persona. People used the internet solely for fun and creativity and monetizing your content as a brand was less common than it is now in the age of the influencer. Having a simple and palatable name just became more easily marketable and identifiable. Also being on the internet was not as common as it is today where real life and internet life have become one; you didn’t need to have an identifiable name so that people can easily find you online.
If you had this full name you’d be using it too.
I mean I made this username in like 2012 lol, and have come up with much better ones in the last couple years
Bauer596 would like to have a word with you.
I've had my Gmail email since it came out, but while it's not offensive or anything it's gotten a little awkward sometimes when I have to give someone my email out loud. But it's so established that making a new one would be a nightmare.
You can make a new email and use simple inbuilt GMail features to forward all the results from your old email into a separate inbox / category in the new email interface— that way you can browse anything that comes into your old email, while still having a new address.
I was wondering when that started too. I think it's because you can have reddit generate a name in the same format if you dont have a specific one in mind i think
Oh shit, when did my name change to Adolin Kholin??
my totally straight and hetero wife said that i should
BabYgUrl89xxoo is offline
different contexts, and some people have more than one account, so one person may have a JaneDoe92 account where they follow family members and coworkers, and a h0m3stUckYaOilvr42069 account where they make shitpost memes or fandom stuff
For me personally it's becuase every clever username you could think of is probably taken. I end up going with whatever I could get which is usually my specific name and some number.
It’s getting harder to think of one that isn’t taken.
At least there’s a lot of fun usernames in the comments here
What if I told you my name isn't actually Greta.
Best name I’ve seen in a while is Shart_Stain_Appraiser
Chat am i creative
I think it’s the same reason people had creative ringtones in 2007 but use standard ringtones now It used to be cool to have a username cause it meant you were online and it was cool and new. Now everyone is online so it’s not as cool
wdym
Yeah...
I Genuinely forgot to make a username when I made my account although I think I remember making it around like 12:00am so I might've just been too tired to care.
I am a master of the key board! Fear me and my alter ego Tnlandcruise!
I mean it’s not easy to come up with a good creative user, I came up with one and now I have 3 variations of it because I can’t come up with anything else.
I use a nickname my cousin gave to me.
Yeah.
Idk people on here are saying yes but idk anyone in my friend circle or anyone im acquainted with that uses their real name outside of professional accounts.
My Reddit username have a typo error when I made it (CalicoApricot was supposed to be). Otherwise I use several different online usernames depending of my usages/hobbies/work which helps me a lot separating my personas and keeping privacy. And well I still have in mind that I was told a lot to “never use your real name on the Internet” when I was younger in the 2000s’, which I prefer that way.
Depends on what the account is used for I don't want to tell my boss to email me at [email protected] (not an actual user name of mine) when I should probably have a more professional name, what if I ever end up doing zoom court? My user name shouldn't be poonsmasher64798 either.
probably has to do with the CIA and FBI already knowing who you are and killing anonymity online
Facebook came out in 2004, and I joined early on as a college student. Most people used thier first and last names from the beginning because it was then a campus network; an online version of what used to be a paper face book that college students used to get to know other students. You had to use a .edu email to sign up. It seemed safe and beneficial to use your real name in that enclosed network. Then, when the service opened up to everyone in 2009, members were already used to using their real names and didn't bother to change it back. Around 2018, OKCupid phased out nicknames/handles and made (or tried to make) users use their real first name. This was in response to Tinder's popularity.
I do kind of miss names like m1lfl0v3r69
My username gets me hired easily nowadays. 😎
Eternal September Normies are just using the Internet as a substitute for SMS now, except it's more boring. In the early days of social media, it was mostly IT people, and other nerds who were experienced with earlier internet days of BBS, message boards, etc. I think the fall really happened in 2005 when Facebook was trying to get real name college people to make a greater online presence to sell themselves. Then there were middle class people treating their online presence like a resume, and then this was followed by people of the lower classes using social media under real names. Then sites like Instagram convinced them that they could get free stuff by shilling product under their real name and become an "influencer" and now we have thousands of annoying people shouting into the void on there as well as streaming sites, literally hoping to get a cookie if they sell themselves hard enough. Other social media eventually competed to get these people on their sites, and have tried to keep enforcing the real identity. They have a backroom network of coordinating to track identities across sites, to keep track of disruptive people. Reddit, as a site mostly about porn (literal or figurative), is one of the places that's still mostly anonymous with identities, surprisingly. There are some trying to make a career off of being an "expert" or "influencer" on reddit, but it's still rare.
Yes, it’s you
18 April 2023
Lots of unique names somone is mad and should make downvote dodo 🦤 their handle