HERE’S THE ANSWER

Gleaned from this thread as of 8/18 2:18PM

At least I think this is the answer. Or answers.

  1. Because when you take the IRL identity stuff out of the process it makes communication smoother.

  2. Tradition. Yes, we do it this way because it’s the way we’ve been doing it for a long time. Since the birth of Facebook or whatever.

  3. So crazy people won’t track me down. Which seems crazy. But that’s just the kind half-acknowledged half-conscious consensual fantasy that people seem to buy into. So maybe it’s true.

  • GlitzyArmrest@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    8
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Plenty of things. Doxxing, identity theft, harassment, etc. Do you really want the world knowing who you actually are? To be able to find your address just by searching your name?

    • froghorse@lemm.eeOP
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      3
      arrow-down
      4
      ·
      1 year ago

      Well “doxxing” is just publishing your real identity. And if you weren’t anonymous then that would be moot.

      So it’s the address. You are afraid of crazy people tracking you down.

      • Uncle@lemmy.ca
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        5
        arrow-down
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        why have you not posted your address and phone number yet? what are you scared of?

      • Apepollo11@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        arrow-up
        1
        ·
        1 year ago

        There’s also the risk of identity theft, people contacting your place of work, and other intrusions into your life.

        • froghorse@lemm.eeOP
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          1
          ·
          1 year ago

          That’s the “crazy people tracking you down” reason.

          There’s gotta be a better reason.

          One I saw here is “it make our communication smoother when you take all the IRL identity stuff out of the equation” (to paraphrase).