Complex Numbers

Who is Waltz?

How is your online persona different from your real world persona? How much attention do you pay to your personal privacy when communicating with others online?

I'm funnier online.

Mostly, this is because I have some time to think about jokes before I post them anywhere. Partly, it's because I have some social anxiety. Not enough to be crippling, but enough so that I'm a bit guarded with people I don't know very well.

Don't get me wrong; I like meeting people and socializing. Booze helps, as it does with many things. I'm just more comfortable with technology, usually.

Still, what you see here is pretty much what you get. With one caveat: like I said in a previous entry, I'm a bit of a chameleon, altering my persona based on the people I'm with. While I've rarely done stand-up comedy, I like to think of this as reading the audience. That's one thing that's actually easier for me to do in person; here on the internet, I have to imagine the audience and their possible reactions, while in person, I can see instantly when someone is bored, relaxed, attentive, or judgemental. Or whatever.

As for personal privacy, the truth is, Robert Waltz isn't my legal name. I don't use it to hide, necessarily, or to escape responsibility for what I write; it's part of the long literary tradition of pen names. But because my actual name is unique - I mean, literally unique; I'm the only one out of 7 billion+ people with my particular name - it would be too easy for someone with ill intent to find out enough about me to cause problems.

That said, I don't worry about that too much. I've been hanging around the internet for 25 years or so, and the only time anyone's ever scammed me has been when I've used credit cards in person. I don't think I'll ever understand why some people are wary about not using credit cards online, but think nothing of handing one to a restaurant server to take away and do Dionysus-knows-what with.

I will add one other thing - I've met many people from Writing.com, and if I'm meeting someone in person, I don't hesitate to use my real name. I'm not trying to con anyone, myself, and the least I can do to demonstrate this is to be up front about who I am. In return, I have to trust that they'll keep my real name off the internet. It's purely a matter of protecting myself from possible online scammers.

So, I'm just me, the same combination of faults and virtues as anyone else, but never actively trying to con anyone. Maybe one day I'll explain how I chose my pen name. But today is not that day.