Academic Blogging and Anonymity Part One, or the Only One

Folks from academia are well represented in Blogland. That's a hunch. I'm too lazy to look it up, but there must be surveys and statistics somewhere.

Academic blogging has been a real boon to the general dissemination of knowledge. My curiosity has been often satisfied or piqued by the interesting writing and references I find on academic blogs. Good job, academic bloggers. You are working for me, and you're working for free.

One of the issues I read about in the academic blogs is whether to post under one's real name, or post anonymously. Those who post anonymously often fear reprisals from their employers.

Trying to protect one's anonymity in Blogland is perilous. People tend to say too much about their personal and work lives, and acquaintances can inadvertently divulge information too. Only iron discipline prevents a slip of the lip.

Mixing the privately personal with the purely academic on a blog is most dangerous. Consider a philosopher who is having an affair outside his marriage. The philosopher intersperses the juicy details of his romance between academic ruminations on his blog. It seems an open invitation for an Internet sleuth to find out who he is.

Also, an academic blogger who writes about their field of research tacitly claims credentials to that area of expertise. Anonymity does not do justice to her curriculum vitae. From a professional point of view that seems limiting when writing in Blogland.

My profile says, "I avoid identity issues, but I will tell you I am a frumpy geezer." I don't have any credentials, so it does not matter what kind of gibber I post.