Do you use your real name on social media?

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I want to know what most people here use as a username, do you use your real name or just a nickname, because i use my real name on social media and i heard some people say its better not to, but i dont post any personal information. So what do most of you do?

I never use my real name for any of my online usernames. I also put as little information as possible for all my accounts. It's safer that way.

That's probably safe enough but you never know in what way some people may cause you trouble. Although I don't know what kinds of trouble I could get in by unnecessarily giving away my name, I know the more anonymous you are, the safer.

I don't give my real name or other personal info on WP because I don't want anyone in real life to be able to identify jk1 as me. I have said some things here on WP that I never say in real life.

It depends.

I am very "out" to pretty much everyone I know face-to-face about most things I talk about in any kind of online support forum or social media. Things I am not, I pretty much only talk about in restricted access on facebook [that is "friends only" lists]. But there are a lot of things that are specifically and intentionally set to "public" on my facebook feed/wall.

That said, while I don't use my full name online anywhere [with the exception of one professional email], I do use my real name- my first and middle- in many places that are either directly or indirectly connected to most of my online accounts- emails, social media, forums accounts. I don't hide it from the places I don't use it- if one can "follow the bouncing ball" one can find it. I just feel it may be more or less appropriate to go by it on certain sites.

This is not a mistake, and I tend to just say I'm "from Boston". Since it is a large metropolitan area, I'm not terribly concerned about personal safety. Even in the places I don't say I'm from Boston, I've moved so many times around there, it doesn't even matter. I also look myself up occasionally to see what actual information is available.

But having been there, done that in terms of being online and being highly visible on a large site before [and being sent lots and lots of unpleasant stuff], I've weighed out what I can do to further self- and peer-advocacy and feel safe 'enough' personally.

I also feel that it is important to identify as a person/human being as I am able with a lot of the difficult stuff I talk about online, and be responsible for what I say- but I know not everyone is in that position and not everyone has it that easy. There were certainly times when I absolutely could NOT use my real name or picture as it was very risky. I can now though.
Suffice it to say, it's what works for me, and not for everyone, and we each need to assess that personally.

On a side note regarding Safety on Teh Intarnets: I did notice in a recent thread about concern for a member who hadn't been here for a while: Someone was asking about them and then another member offered to give the first person who was concerned the missing member's phone number. Then I saw that someone was offering to just hand out their number to anyone who pm'd and asked. This REALLY alarmed me. I would never just hand out personal info like that: not my own, not anyone else's.

A good way to get around that though would be to use a phone number service like skype or google phone number services [I don't remember what the google number service is called].

Anyway. um... tangent!

I use my middle name on here, but I go by my first name. My facebook is in my real name, and those folks from here that are on my FB know it, and most of them have other contact info for me too.

I'm the one whose phone number was given out, and it was fine. I have unlimited minutes, so it's no big deal. I think most people who know me well enough to have my number would know that it wouldn't bother me. I just don't want it posted on the forum so anybody can Google it, or people just randomly call me to b***h at me about some post I made that upset them or something. Otherwise, I don't have a problem with people calling me. If I started getting prank calls I would just block them or not answer calls from that area code or something. Eventually, they would get tired of it I'm sure.

_________________
I'm giving it another shot. We will see.
My forum is still there and everyone is welcome to come join as well. There is a private women only subforum there if anyone is interested. Also, there is no CAPTCHA.

The link to the forum is http://www.rightplanet.proboards.com

I use real name on Facebook. If I went by Mick Avory, my parents would have had a fit and than I would have been sent back to my local mental health office. My parents also would have tried to stop me from being myself back in 2009 just like they did in 1998.

I don't use my real name full stop. Full Stop.

I usually use a nickname or something similar to my actual name, cuz theres not very many people with my last name, so it is easy to find me through search engines. Or I usually only use my first name and not my full last name. On sites that require a "username", I use something that doesn't have my name in it at all.

no. i severely dislike my real name, yet i've used it for facebook with a made up middle name, on the 2 years i spent on it.

i'd use a made up nickname but i seem to go through monikers i like pretty quickly.

nope, I didn't use my real name. Then I deleted my accounts.

Don't use social media except forums, where I always use my real name Ezra. On a couple of occasions have used my middle name/nick name Shea. Since Ezra had already been taken here I went with EzraS.