Have you ever wished you were invisible? I don’t mean those times when you want the earth to open and swallow you up because you’ve said or done something embarrassing, nor yet those times when you just want to hide away from the world and pretend you don’t exist. I mean being invisible in a way that means you can do those things you wouldn’t normally do in public, like picking your nose or scratching an intimate area, or even staring at an attractive stranger without them being aware of you. Perhaps you might even use being invisible to get up to some naughtiness for which you could be sure you would never be caught. 

Being anonymous is a little like that. We can confess in an anonymous forum to things we never would out in the real world where we are known. That’s why Alcoholics Anonymous and Addicts Anonymous have their names and attributes. In those forums, you are safe because nobody knows your name – apart from your first name, and you can always make one up.

Our Moodscope community is anonymous. When people respond to these blogs they can do it under their own name, or a pseudonym. When we bloggers write, we are anonymous. Well, sort of, some of us more than others.

Anonymity is safe. Take that away and we can feel exposed. Yet last Saturday, some of us met in London and risked that exposure. We sacrificed our anonymity because we felt we were in a safe place with people we trusted.

It was lovely to meet each other and put faces to names. Very few of us look like our mental image of them – for those who met me and were expecting someone taller, I can only apologise. Although we only met each other for a short amount of time, and in some cases were only able to say a quick hello in passing, we were able to create instant bonds because we already knew each other from either these blogs or because of comments on the blogs.

But what now? Is Moodscope still a safe forum? Will those who met still feel comfortable sharing their deepest selves and most tender vulnerabilities with each other? Will I still feel like sharing my own life as much now I have met some of you? Now you have faces, is it as safe?

My answer to this, and I hope everyone’s answer to this, is a resounding YES! I have rarely encountered such a warm and accepting group as we Moodscopers. I feel comfortable with all of you and only wish everyone who uses Moodscope could have come along – although we would have needed a much bigger room, and the air conditioning would have had to have worked a lot harder! I hope you all still feel comfortable with each other, and with me too.

Some people treasure their anonymity and that’s absolutely fine, but I think the sacrifice of that anonymity can be well worth it. It certainly is for me.

Mary

A Moodscope member