Stealing HIstories

[fireincarnation.livejournal.com]

This post is a coopertive effort between Hannibal and Mela.
X-posted in multiplicity and my journal.

There seems to be a lot of discussion recently about people stealing other people's identities, stories, lives, etc. online and using that information as a way of making themself seem more important, or as entertainment. People seem to get really worked up about this, and I just don't understand why. It's not like it actually harms you in any way to have someone out there in cyberspace pretending to be you. It's not like they are stealing identities in the "stealing your credit card and pretending to be you while purchasing that footlong butt plug" way, or even in the "pretending to be you and talking to all your friends" way. No, these are people with too little imagination to make up their own fake history, who have decided that yours will do just fine, and decided to use bits of your past to impress people they met online, who you will in all likelihood never meet. I can imagine it would be rather alarming to run across someone online claiming to have the same members in their system as you, the same general history, etc. But it's a long ways from being alarmed to trying to conceal important facts about yourself so that people won't try to impersonate you. Being alarmed at the prospect is normal, hiding information about yourself out of a fear that someone will inpersonate you is scarily close to paranoid schitzophrenia.

Comments

[kasiawhisper.livejournal.com]

To each their own....

[kangetsuhime.livejournal.com]

For some people, this kind of action is something they desire to avoid. While you may be able to deal with it, for others it may be something which weighs on their mind.

[jenscovia.livejournal.com]

i don't worry about it so much. maybe it's the idea of who would impersonate us? it would probably squick me [personally] out a little bit, but jens knows who they are. if someone where to take that information and make into drama or whatever... not really sure how that would go over.

JADY

[ksol1460.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting this, I was going to write a short message about it but our sciatica was acting up so bad I couldn't sit down at the damn computer. Chiropractor today.

I wouldn't go so far as to say it was close to "paranoid schizophrenia" to be concerned about other people impersonating you. In fact, it happens quite a bit on line and it has ruined a lot of reputations and gotten people in serious trouble.

What I don't want to see is people censoring themselves in this community because they're so terrified that someone is going to co-opt facts about your system in constructing a fake plural online identity.

I'm going to repost part of this as a separate post so that everybody will see it.

"paranoid schizophrenia"

[spookshow-girl.livejournal.com]

Diagnostic Criteria (http://www.mentalhealth.com/dis1/p21-ps01.html)

I assume you mean figuratively. It should be noted that using terms like that in hyperbole can cause misunderstandings about the disorder that help few.

Your concerns are understood however.

--Me/Her

Re: "paranoid schizophrenia"

[fireincarnation.livejournal.com]

If you look closely, you will notice that I said it was scarily close to paranoid schitzophrenia, not that it was paranoid schitzophrenia.

Hannibal adds . . .
I would not make a diagnosis based on information gathered over the internet, or based on such little evidence that a person is hiding information about him or herself out of fear of impersonation. The point Mela and I were making is that such behavior as hiding information about oneself out of fear that someone will gain access to that information and impersonate you is characteristic behavior of paranoid schitzophrenia, not that it is nessicarily indicitive that the disorder is present.
I have treated many patients with paranoid schitzophrenia. I use the term to indicate the severity of the implications of the symptoms, and as I stated before, not to diagnose any disorder.