No Stupid Questions

I think it all started with Zuck wanting to turn Facebook profiles into the "Internet's Driving License" or some shit about ten years ago: https://www.technologyreview.com/2011/01/05/197776/facebook-wants-to-supply-your-internet-drivers-license/

Facebook. Simple as.

Right around the time "don't get into cars with strangers" and "don't meet people from the internet" changed to "invite a stranger from the internet to your home and get into their car".

We realized that the internet wasn't quite as scary as daytime talk show hosts were making it out to be, and got comfortable with oversharing. People also realized you could make a living and maintain a professional presence on the internet, and that's not quite as easy to do if you're going by Xx_vIrGiNsLaYeRz_xX. I think eventually Facebook was the one to normalize it for everybody, but we were definitely pushing that way for a little while, anyway.

It happened when all the non-techy people joined social media.

When some sites coughquoracough started disallowing posting unless you did it under your irl name.

Even though I am giving up privacy by having my real name online, I just realized that I do not matter to anyone. Out of 7 Billion people I am insignificant, so the chances of malicious activity towards me is incredibly low. For me there is a comforting feeling of being able to communicate as myself on the internet instead of needing an alias to hide behind for protection. Plus, if my full name is googled then the only information that comes up is a drug crime lord in Britain since we share a very similar name; that has been a great mask to hide sensitive information.

Very interesting question. As an Italian (specifying this because it probably changes what and when things happened), I remember this transition started to happen in 2010 mainly because of Facebook.

It's difficult to say why we decided to go with real names on that platform when there were already other similar ones (netlog was super popular here), where most people were mostly semi-anonimous (real pictures, fake names). I totally agree with another comment which said we started to realize internet was not that dangerous or bad, which probably made this happen, combined with the fact that Facebook explicitly asks for your real name.
Back then, I feel there was also much less attention to privacy on the internet (or maybe it's just because I was a teenager), and it felt super exciting to engage with every new platform or website.

My parents would preach something fierce about the dangers of even interacting with strangers online (even just having a generic "how are you" back and forth). In my 20s, I started playing Tibia and really enjoyed the fact that I could interact with people from around the world. I learned plenty of things that I simply didn't learn in school. When my folks learned I was talking to people I didn't know, they were appalled. I hate to think how they would have reacted to the knowledge that I shared my first name with some of those people (it's a veeeeery common name where I'm from).

Then my mom got a Twitter account. Then joined group DMs with like-minded people. Then she started giving out her first name, then her cell number. Then she shared our address. I'm still salty. Luckily nothing bad has ever come of it. The group seems like they're wonderful people and my mom is able to turn to them when she's not feeling the best and vice versa.

I'm not sure what you're referring to, but for what it's worth, when I got online in the 90s, I shared as little as possible (it was under my email on Usenet, mostly). Since then, I've used different aliases on each and every service, often different emails as well and have never shared anything personal. The very idea seems ludicrous to me.

I know a lot of people do it. I honestly have absolutely no idea why.

But then I never could understand why people took selfies either, so maybe it's just me.

Because no one will ever believe you.

I've always probably overshared about my life online and you could probably figure out who I am with enough detective work, but I don't think I've ever associated my name with anything on social media except Facebook, where everyone I communicate with already knows me on at least some personal level. But I agree, it seems like a lot more people are comfortable with exposing who they are online. I go to a public fan forum where people are regularly showing full face photos of themselves in T-shirts for the fandom and such. It floors me. Anyone can find that in a Google search. It isn't private at all.

vanity > privacy

Because I don't give a fuck. Not everyone wears a tim foil hat and do not care that a picture of them in highschool is online.

The truth is that this overexposure on the internet hasn’t caused much more harm than before social media. Most people, not all, but a majority have zero bad intentions. So sharing details about yourself to a mass audience is screaming in the void. Nobody cared about your life before it was on the internet, nobody cares now. Social media companies selling your data is for a shitty reason but not an unethical one. They just want to sell you stuff and they are salesmen that know everything about you.

On the other side, people who want to do bad things can and will regardless of details about someone on the internet. Stranger danger is a fallacy and the person who can/might victimize you is someone you already know. Sure, maybe it saves time, but it doesn’t really change victimization. People can stalk someone in real life, can steal their mail, can social engineer the people around their victim, it’s just a bit easier when a lot of it can be done by befriending someone on social media.

For me, it came down to contributing to open source projects in a meaningful or professional capacity. Commits and correspondence generally contain identifiable contact information, and if you have a professional website or email address using your real name then it's only a matter of time before the two worlds collide.

As a result, I stopped using aliases for most things in the early 2000s. For Steam and other gaming platforms, sure, but for social media, it's just plain old me.

For most people it's because nothing bad has happened to them personally... YET. They just get comfortable with what they are already doing and everything is fine in their life until one day it isn't.

FOMO. People post so they aren't left behind on trends or become forgotten.

Since I started posting online under my real name, I’m even more careful about what I post.