How to DISAPPEAR FROM THE INTERNET

 

About six months ago, a digital security expert writing for the New York Times made a valiant attempt to “disappear from the Internet.”

It failed.

 

I faintly recall my first internet venture, a modest page on Facebook created so I can see what my kids, who preceded me with Facebook pages, were posting.

That was a fail on two fronts. When the parents arrived, the kids left or learned to hide posts from any who weren’t on special lists, gratis of Facebook's cleverness. It was also a fail on a second front for the first five years, because I never looked at my empty page and thus ignored genuine friend requests from people who are real life friends and did use Facebook. Some of them might have felt rejected, as my daughter later pointed out the tiny check on the Friend Request button. “Really, Mom,” she said.

 

But, with that modest inaugural arrival, my name was on the internet along with Facebook frenetic data collection.

 

Once I had a book contracted, I also had a website, and when the book was published, I went into high gear to open accounts on anything and everything the publishing mavens said were “musts.”

The awkwardness of it all, the feeling of vulnerability, gave way to modern demands to be there or be less than a tiny square.

 

There are many reasons to want to get off the digital deck and disappear from the Internet. If you are a target of sophisticated fortune hunters (this applies to individuals of great fortunes) or have controversy attached to you that brings out the nastiest among our race, you may wish you could erase your digital presence.

 

There should be a way to do it. A service calling itself DELETE ME claims they can and will, for a fee, do it for you. The New York Times reporter says they sort of do, but not really.

 

I don’t feel good about the lack of choice, but like the Serenity Prayer says, “I accept the things I cannot change.”

 

Unless laws come in, and with them real life enforcement and consequences for violators, the Internet has us where it wants us, whether we like it or not. I’d add another line to the prayer: “Please don’t put me in a position where I will need to hide.” 

This, because there is no longer a place to do so.

WRITING UNDER A PSEUDONYM

 

For reasons I can only describe as ignorance of consequences, lack of vision, lack of understanding how publishing works, and a touch of ego, I never considered a pseudonym when I first sought publication.

It seemed a needless complication, because one’s legal name is straightforward and pseudonyms suggest expectation of an illustrious publishing career. In addition, a pseudonym says you are hiding, which means you have something to hide.

 

I now wish I knew more back then. Pseudonyms are more than a form of protection, (because most who write never get the harsh bright lights of mass recognition anyway) they are distinct public personas and thus “brands” of sorts, and many find this very helpful creatively.

 

A pseudonym is employed when writers write in divergent and incompatible genres. Think kidlit and erotica, or kidlit and politics, or kidlit and most genres not kidlit.

 

A few years ago, I met a much-published writer who wrote in three distinctive genres. She used one pseudonym for her mysteries, another for her erotica, and her legal name for literary novels. She is by no means a household name in any of her three author identities. But she did admit her strongest income stream was from her erotica writing. No surprise there.

 

She said the different names helped her stay creative and focused. I understand, and no longer find this practice a wee creepy, like I used to.

 

Add to this consideration the matter of privacy, barely possible at the age where the Interwebs give your home address to anyone who will pay a few dollars, (and even free) as another name has a layer of security, albeit a thin one.

 

I never considered it, and even my social media presence (such as it is) is all-public. Easy, as I’m not famous. But if you are just starting out and foresee seeking mass recognition, think about it and see if a pseudonym will make you creatively better focused and feeling more secure. If you choose to go that way, have fun with the choice of pseudonym because having fun on this journey is what will keep you going.