Dear Anonymous,
I see you do not have a face and you do not have a name. You are an anonymous person on the internet. You’ve hidden your face and hidden your name, and instead you’ve created a false face and a false name. As a result I don’t really know if you are a real human person. Are you a robot? Are you an artificial intelligence? I’m not entirely certain.
I’d like to believe you are a real, human person. You probably are. But then again, I’ve been working on the internet for years and I’ve seen this so many times, it’s so predictable.
A real human person hides his face and hides his name and then begins to act like a non-human person.
Why are you hiding, brother (or sister)? What are you afraid of?
I have seen this again and again. A man hides his face and hides his name, and thus he makes himself into a non-human person. The internet is already a disembodied community. So we’re already limited in the human interaction that we can have on the internet. We already cannot have a real, in-person, contact. The metaphysical light of the Image of God in man is obscured by the man-created light of the screen.
But you’ve chosen to go further. You’ve hidden your face and name.
This suggests to me that you are afraid to have a human interaction. If we were talking in person, and you could never look me in the eye, and you refused to tell me your name, I would conclude that you were not serious about having a conversation. Then I would quickly end the conversation and say goodbye, since this conversation cannot go further without a face and a name.
From my experience it’s the same online.
Many, many times I have seen it. A human person hides his face and his name, and then proceeds to interact online in a non-human way. He does not talk to others with respect or kindness. He does not seem to be genuinely searching for the truth.
And the first act of respect for other human beings is sharing your face and your name. Instead, you hide your face and hide your name, and thus you act like a non-human person to me. Therefore you begin our interaction by disrespecting me as a human person.
If you’re afraid to face me or tell me your name for some legitimate reason, you can certainly send me an email so we can speak privately. I respect your need for privacy online – sometimes people need to write anonymously for some grave cause – this can sometimes happen if you are a priest or a woman.
However, if you don’t have a legitimate reason but you still want to hide your face you’re your name, and then you want to talk to others in a “public” place online – aren’t you making yourself into a non-human person? Forgive me, brother (or sister?), but since I do not know you, your false name and false face leads me to wonder if your intentions are false. You have already shown that you do not want to interact with other people in a human way.
You have already shown that you cannot face me, because you have adopted a false face.
You have already shown that you cannot speak to me because you have adopted a false name.
You tell me that you do not want to “get personal.” But a face and a name is not “personal” – it’s not like you’re telling me your personal family details or something like that – no. It’s not personal, it’s human. That’s the way God made us. He gave us faces and our parents gave us names. That’s His preference for human interaction. Human persons have faces and names.
If you don’t want to show me your face and your name, that tells me you want to be a non-human person online. And it seems to me that I cannot pursue truth and charity with non-human persons. Non-human persons have false names and false faces, and therefore from the very beginning of your online existence, you are not living in the truth. Therefore, if you are a real human person, I sincerely wish you the best, but I cannot continue to talk to non-human persons. Here’s my face and my name, and I look forward to getting to know you if ever change your mind about your own face and your own name, and then together we can pursue truth.
With respect,
Timothy
editor@meaningofcatholic.com
Photo by Chris Yang on Unsplash
