Many years ago, when I was in elementary school around fourth grade, I created my first gmail account. I don’t specifically remember for what reason, but it was probably to play a video game that required an email account for registration. Notably, instead of using a real name, I actually used a fake name for account registration, that was similar but not exactly the same as my actual name. 

I’m not entirely sure what inspired elementary school me to not use my real name. I remember being teased for it by a friend, who assumed I misspelled it, and was surprised when I told him it was intentional. Regardless, whenever I used that gmail account, I was anonymous. Since my name was fake, and I had no accounts on the web with my real name, there was no way to easily tie my gmail account to me, especially since this was before the age of big data. I comfortably surfed the internet nameless, and safely played my video games or whatever else I used the web for.  

Reflecting on that now, in an age where Google, Outlook, and the website I am writing this on all greet me by my real name, and where a lengthy list of corporations undoubtedly know my location, name, and age without my consent, I sometimes wish to return to the simple times before the explosion of telemarketing spawned an age of big data. In the present day, corporations acquire, share, and use your personal information to bombard you with personalized ads and other forms of marketing. While it is likely a lost cause, nowadays I am very hesitant to open an account on any website, worried that anything I sign up for would somehow end up on this imaginary internet record that would somehow bite me back in the future.