• 🇰 🌀 🇱 🇦 🇳 🇦 🇰 🇮 @pawb.social
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    32
    ·
    edit-2
    1 day ago

    Am I the only one who has assumed any account using the format “Firstname LastName” since the early 2000’s is a bot, because real people generally make creative usernames?

    I know it doesn’t exactly work in the age of Twitter, where so many people were never taught basic online safety guidelines, which included NOT USING YOUR REAL GOD DAMN NAME, but old habits die hard.

    • idiomaddict@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      ·
      11 hours ago

      These are all almost names in the same way. It makes me wonder if they’re variants in a language I’ve never seen before or (imo more likely) someone prompted ai for women’s usernames and it got confused by the cutesy ways people used to augment their names for usernames.

    • melvisntnormal@feddit.uk
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      1 day ago

      I’ve had my Google account for over a decade. At some point, I noticed my YouTube handle was just my name, and I don’t remember setting it to that.

      On pretty much all websites, I have a default username I try to use, but I don’t remember getting that option when making a Google account

    • r4venw@sh.itjust.works
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      10
      ·
      1 day ago

      Google defaults new accounts to use the name they use for their email account unless you make a “brand account” IIRC which is actually fucking stupid

    • rottingleaf@lemmy.world
      link
      fedilink
      English
      arrow-up
      2
      arrow-down
      2
      ·
      12 hours ago

      There’s a counterpoint to that. In real hard truth, nobody is anonymous and creative handles can be traced back to a name easily.

      But having pseudonyms affects human psychology. And makes people post things they wouldn’t want to be traced to them. And do things.

      There was a time when it seemed that everything is insecure. That time didn’t end. Just with HTTPS everywhere and encrypted everything and with glossy appearances people have genuinely lost all understanding of the real world.

      They think, metaphorically, that if there’s no name written on their door, everyone who asks can’t learn who they are.