The Tale of Miss A. Nonny Mouse

When I was younger my parents bought me a book of poems written by A. Nonny Mouse. It seems that Miss Mouse (who was an actual mouse of course!) had written a large number of poems. But somehow throughout time people stopped crediting her for the work and instead said the poems were written by someone called anonymous. And poor A. Nonny Mouse faded off in obscurity.

But speaking of Miss A. Nonny Mouse, lets talk about anonymity in the blogosphere. First there's some bloggers who we're on a full name basis with. So much so that I could give you their name and most of you know automatically what blogs I'm talking about. Need some proof? Anyone know who Heather Armstrong is? Or Ree Drummond? Or even Kelly Stamps?

Then there's other who make an attempt to stay completely anonymous. They go by an alter ego. They avoid posting any personal pictures. They make a point to avoid posting any identifiable facts.

But in general most bloggers, as well as myself, tend to fall somewhere in between the two. For example, you all know at least part of my name, but I've made a point not to reveal the whole thing. I do try to refer to the boy as "the boy," but I'm sure if you've been paying enough attention there's some of you who know what his name is. Although at times I think maybe it would have been slightly smarter to be slightly more anonymous from the start. After all, it might have been from to come up with an alter ego!

Its funny to think that 15 or so years ago no one had to worry about how much to reveal online, because it didn't really exist. It makes you wonder if 15 years from now we'll stop worrying again, but only because everything will already be online?

If your a blogger, what level of anonymity do you feel comfortable with? Have you ever felt a need to change it? And for fun, do you have any favorite poems written by A. Nonny Mouse?

~Shoshanah