OK, Here's One

One thought, that is.

I spent last winter in Stockholm and I did keep a blog whilst there. I wanted to experiment with this new medium and I wanted to connect with folks back home. My handle was the mysterious "ChrisA"and I'm pretty sure nobody figured out who I was.

My big identity struggle came as I worked out the differences between my home culture and my new culture. As I wrote about the difficulties of being an immigrant, of the bizarro-world ways of doing things sometimes and just the humor in it all, I chose, as my audience, Americans—folks back home who understand where I'm coming from. I chose not to share my blog with my relatives and new friends in Sweden. I was objectively viewing their culture, learning about it with respect, but getting a real kick out of the differences. I was afraid I would offend someone with my observations.

So, in my case, it wasn't the pseudonym which kept me anonymous, but my mailing list. Of course, anyone in Sweden could have stumbled across my blog, or my aunt in Jämshög could have called my uncle in Montclair, New Jersey who could have mentioned that I was writing this thing. But, in my own way, I attempted to control the readership just a little bit.