{"id":9,"date":"2014-10-03T03:34:04","date_gmt":"2014-10-03T03:34:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/?p=9"},"modified":"2014-10-03T03:34:04","modified_gmt":"2014-10-03T03:34:04","slug":"pseudonymous-bosh-why-i-dont-blog-under-an-alias","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/?p=9","title":{"rendered":"Pseudonymous Bosh – Why I Don’t Blog Under an Alias"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Detail<\/a>

Detail from Hieronymus Bosch’s “The Carrying of the Cross.” Photo by Louis DeBussy<\/p><\/div>\n

“Ain’t nothin’ like the real thing, Baby…” \u00a0– Marvin Gaye<\/em><\/p>\n

As you\u00a0may have noticed, I am writing this blog under my real name<\/a>. \u00a0It was not a difficult decision for me to take, but if you’re curious or if you’re considering launching your own blog, I’ll tell you why I choose to forego the anonymity of the internet.<\/p>\n

1)<\/strong> It’s too important.<\/strong>
\nIf I expect you to read, subscribe to and put what I write into practice\u00a0it’s only fair that I declare my biases and own my opinions. \u00a0You are then free to judge the value of what I offer against\u00a0the larger context of my life.<\/p>\n

2) \u00a0I believe in this issue, and am willing to speak forthrightly.<\/strong>
\nLook, I’m a busy man. \u00a0If seeing Millennial\u00a0\u00a0men embrace thriving, authentic masculinity were not\u00a0a priority for me, I have no shortage of\u00a0things to do with my time. \u00a0Clearly, encouraging and motivating you to be the best version of yourself is part of my calling. \u00a0You deserve to hear about this from someone who’ll shoot straight with you.<\/p>\n

3) \u00a0Not using an alias forces me to count the cost and consider my words.
\n<\/strong>I am not a hermit, nor am I independently wealthy. \u00a0Through my work, my art and my responsibilities in church and elsewhere, I am not my own. \u00a0It would be foolish to try to\u00a0live a double life, indulging in private adventures, saying reckless things and putting any of the organizations I’m affiliated with in a bad light. \u00a0I’m able to say what I have to say in a way that won’t offend your grandma. \u00a0She may not agree with me; she may correct my grammar; but she won’t complain about the way I express my ideas. Plus, it’s totally safe for work.
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

4) \u00a0There are plenty of impostors, posers and fakes.
\n<\/strong>I like the Peter Steiner cartoon<\/a> that shows two dogs in front of a computer monitor where one says to the other, “On the internet, nobody knows you’re a dog.” Profile pictures are photoshopped. \u00a0Credentials are inflated. \u00a0And we’ve all heard — or heard of — the the Internet Tough Guy (ITG) who will\u00a0say anything but can’t be found to back it up. \u00a0I’m striving to be the man God intended me to be. \u00a0I can’t do that behind a pseudonym.<\/p>\n

5) Some people enjoy the sport of “outing” anonymous bloggers. \u00a0I choose not to play.
\n<\/strong>I cut out the middleman and pass the savings on to you.<\/p>\n

6) In order to force myself to keep this up. \u00a0There’s no one to blame but me if I fail.
\n<\/strong>A friend of mine said it this way: “Telling a friend your goals caulks up your plans.” \u00a0I have enough pride not to want to fail publicly, so by launching this blog in this way I am making myself accountable to continue to think, write and post. \u00a0Ideally, you’ll be the beneficiary.<\/p>\n

Please note: I don’t mind if you want to comment anonymously, or if you or anyone else blogs under a pen name. \u00a0Some worthwhile ideas might not get expressed otherwise. \u00a0That just isn’t for me — I’m on a mission from God.<\/p>\n

So how about you?<\/strong>\u00a0 In what ways are you striving to be authentic? \u00a0Add your comments below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Ain’t nothin’ like the real thing, Baby…” \u00a0– Marvin Gaye As you\u00a0may have noticed, I am writing this blog under my real name. \u00a0It was not a difficult decision for me to take, but if you’re curious or if you’re considering launching your own blog, I’ll tell you why I choose to forego the anonymity […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[32,10,34,3,33,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-anonymity","category-integrity","category-mission","category-perseverance","category-pseudonym","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":211,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9\/revisions\/211"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}