People change their usernames because they want to change their usernames. It's someone's self-identifier, and people change over time. You aren't the same person you were 5 years ago, and some people like to change their username when they feel that they themselves no longer identify with their old one.
Honestly, if I didn't have any long-running characters / games active, I'd have changed my username long ago. I just haven't because I don't want to have to get people to recognize my new name instead of the old one.
I've always disagreed with that sentiment. I use a bunch of different names all over the internet, with the one here being one of the oldest that's been depreciated for me a long time ago. I don't care, though, because I don't feel names are who people are. Same for other identifying categories. I've spent a fair number of years working with the public, and the people who worry me are the ones who believe they are defined by what they believe, or who identify with categories first, because people can convince themselves they believe anything.
The problem is language is limited. Any way that you identify yourself at all is nothing but a category. The most specific one is generally your own name though. But if even your own name doesn't fit you, you don't have a way to put into words a re-affirmation of your own identity.
this bothers some people, and doesn't others. But your reasoning doesn't follow in the case of people's names, even though it applies most everywhere else identifiers are concerned. Someone identifying with their name is identifying with themselves, not with categorizations of themselves. It's the exact opposite of your concern. I'm surprised you aren't supporting it, based on what you said.
[/quote]
Very much the opposite. You always are who you are. That's the one thing everyone always has, even if you don't feel comfortable with yourself. Saying that you can't identify yourself other than through language? That's a problem. Language is how you communicate to other people, not to yourself. Your name, or your alleigance, is only holding you back because you have defined yourself to be 'not that name' or 'this group', or 'not that group'.
You don't have a way to reaffirm your own identity through words? Tough. The words are for other people, not you thinking of yourself. Same with names. I'm fine with a name as an identifier for myself, but I am not the name, the name is mine. Ownership runs that way, and hence whatever name is around is fine.
I can see reasons why people might want to change their names, but in the end, I see no reason for me to ever do so. Same with other categories. I am myself, regardless of if I have a word to force upon other people, in an act of self-affirmation by dominance.
If you want a direct example of such, Lenglon, I can think of many things that I do not have words for. I was born with a significant degree of hearing loss, such that I suffer, and have suffered, a form of tinnantus throughout my life, which made some things such as learning to sleep, much harder in ways that are difficult to cover with existing launguage. I don't need a word to identify those experiences to myself, only if I choose to share them with other people.
Language is ultimately functional, and intended to facilitate communication. The act of thinking for yourself is not dependant upon language, although it is often shaded or affected by it.
Author
Topic: Einsteinian Roulette: OOC and NEW PLAYER INFO (Read 2523312 times)