As an unrepentant “Nairalander” who was a guest for more than five years, I enjoy reading crazy comments on the website. I do not create posts or comment but I derive strange joy in reading weird comments from some annoying members. In my usual reading, I stumbled on a post titled “Why you should use your real name on facebook: true life story” written by “Rapsino”. I guessed that the writer is also guilty of using a nom de plume on ‘Nairaland’ too.
That is not my concern even though he did not practice what he was preaching.
What caught my attention was his story! According to the writer, he entered a train from a station on his way to Dubai. He was in a hurry and unknowingly his wallet dropped off and he got to know of it when he wanted to get a bus ticket. He said he got to his destination out of the generosity of a stranger. The following morning, he logged on to his facebook account and he found a message from a stranger asking if he lost a wallet. He said the strange woman went through his identity cards in the wallet and she searched his name on facebook and saw the picture on his identity card was the same with his profile picture.
Definitely, if he had used shorthand, sobriquet, codename, crazy nickname or pet name it would have been difficult for the lady to locate her on facebook. Some use their real name on social media but the spelling will be something else with the same pronunciation. We most times prefer to use an unknown handle on social media in order to hide our identities. Although, it could be that while registering or signing up in a social media website, someone else has used your name to register, but you can always use a name that will identify you with your real name.
A friend went to visit his girlfriend and unfortunately met the mother. It was an “unfortunate meeting” because the over-enthusiastic mother of the girl asked my friend what is his facebook account username. My friend immediately lied that he is not on facebook. He was not proud to tell the woman that his facebook username is “Hadeholu ProblemChild”. That would have been the end of the relationship. No matter how witty you may argue, its pros outweigh its cons. It is better to use ones identity as username.
