The Australian PM was asked how young minorities might find social groups without social media [1]. His reply was floundering but amounted to "in a face to face way".
When I think of anonymous or 'fake' (/burner) accounts, bad things (illegal or ~immoral) come to mind. But thinking more deeply, I ask myself "have I ever created a fake account?", and the answer is - "yeah, several times!" - for example:
- Burner reddit accounts, to comment or share info when (e.g. when doing so from my primary account would have been awkward for one reason or another)
- Ditto for HN
- Gmail accounts, usually for (software) testing purposes
- Before facebook had a feature to view your own profile, created a dummy account to see how it appeared to other users
- Probably more I've forgotten about
In these cases a 'dummy' account was/is very useful - it let me access and share information I or others needed. Curious to learn what others use (pseudo-anonymous | burner | 'fake' | 'dummy') social media accounts for?
The example given in a question to the Australian PM is a hypothetical about a young lgbtq person who may not be able to find anyone to speak to face to face (esp if their parents are not supportive), so social media is absolutely essential to finding like communities and learning about that aspect of themselves.
That's just one tiny (yet compelling) example.
What are your experiences; have you ever needed to create a 'fake' social media account, and if so, what for, what value did you get from it, and what were the alternatives (if any)?
[1] https://x.com/TalaatSYehia/status/1862389652126069231
And it's not because i want to do something illegal or anything, and to be honest i can't point to the exact reason but i think it has something to do with the idea of people being able to extract a large portion of your life just from your internet information.
The other thing I have done is create fake gmail accounts so I could scam HelloFresh and continue receiving free boxes of HelloFresh by “signing up” as a new customer, and making referrals from my “master account” to all my fake accounts. I’d get my free box, then after the free box had been delivered, I’d unsubscribe the service and move onto the next account. I’d get new debit cards as well so I could upload fresh card details and use a fake names. I haven’t done it in ages, but I definitely got heaps of free food doing this.
George Orwell (Eric Arthur Blair)
James Tiptree Jr. (Alice Bradley Sheldon)
Mark Twain (Samuel Langhorne Clemens)
Currer Bell (Charlotte Brontë)
Ellis Bell (Emily Brontë)
Acton Bell (Anne Brontë)
Qiu Jin (Jingxiong)
Voltaire (François-Marie Arouet)
Victoria Lucas (Sylvia Plath)
Yi Sang (Kim Hae-gyeong)
Mary Westmacott (Agatha Christie)
Sui Sin Far (Edith Maude Eaton)
O. Henry (William Sydney Porter)
A. M. Barnard (Louisa May Alcott)
Richard Bachman (Stephen King)
Radclyffe Hall (Marguerite Radclyffe-Hall)
Langston Hughes (vaious)
Romain Gary (Roman Kacew)
Amantine Lucile Aurore Dupin (George Sand)
Isak Dinesen (Karen Blixen)
Toni Morrison (Chloe Ardelia Wofford)
Pauline Réage (Anne Desclos)
Charles Chao (Zhao Yuanren)
Steele Rudd (Arthur Hoey Davis)
Henry Handel Richardson (Ethel Florence Lindesay Richardson)
Miles Franklin (Stella Maria Sarah Miles Franklin)
Banjo Paterson (Andrew Barton Paterson)
Joseph Furphy (Tom Collins)
C.J. Dennis (Clarence Michael James Dennis)
Barbara Baynton (Anon, initials)
Ethel Turner (Anon, initials)
That's funny, you have an account here.
Never ever use your own Facebook account, and make sure you have multiple connected.
Some agencies have vigorous practices around it due to the nightmares of getting banned or locked out of creating ads.
Same with Google.
You just can’t or rather shouldn’t run big ad accounts using your own Google or Facebook accounts. But yet these companies don’t have a concept of accounts for just admin and business purposes.
Yes, Linkedin, just so I can view profiles and posts without getting the login wall.
I'm also very skeptical that the Australian authorities will be able to police this at all, since well... what incentive does the rest of the world have to care? They're not gonna try and block every site that doesn't authenticate their users, and many sites simply won't have a presence on Australian soil. So we'll probably see a huge flood of anonymous and pseudononymous social media platforms anyway.
All the things I've said are me but different facets of me that I may or may not want to reveal to other people and even when I do I want to have option to reveal them on my terms and pace.