I've been struggling with this, to be honest.
I'm a pastor and I originally told myself that I'd never use my real face; certainly not my real name. What would my church members think if they discovered me on here? Would it change what they think about me? Could it affect my ministry somehow?
I'm currently at some Minister's meetings with about 100 other pastors. I drove up with two other pastoral buddies of mine and I asked their opinion about this.
One of them asked, "well, are you doing anything wrong? Are you saying anything mean or immoral?"
"No," I responded.
"Then what's the problem?" he asked. "You're teaching people about leadership and life. That's a good thing!"
I think a part of me wonders about it because you can publicly see how much each post has earned.
"What if my account takes off and I start to make some significant cash from Steemit?" I thought out loud to him.
But then my friend responded by saying that pastors write books and make money from them all the time. No one thinks anything about that. They get invited to speak at conferences and some are given very generous honorariums.
It's true.
Here on Steemit, it seems that there are people on different sides of the boat.
There are people like @trafalgar and @gavvet who just use avatars. They are completely anonymous. Though @trafalgar did use a small photo of himself for a time being. My friend, @shadalene, recently joined. She used her real face for a few days, but I see is using an avatar again.
Then there are people like @fisteganos and @prettydecent and @hebrewhousewife who show their faces but don't use their names.
And then there are people like @jerrybanfield. He uses his real face and his real name. Everything is public! I rather admire that.
Here's what I'm thinking.
I think I'm going to start using my face for two reasons. First, I think it's tough to connect with a symbol or avatar. I'm a people person. I like to connect with others. Second, I'm thinking of starting to make little videos on @dtube. I'll write a blog post on a topic and then also make an accompanying video for some of the posts. And it'd be a little weird to hide my face while making a video!
@prettydecent <~~~~~~~~~~actually inspired me, so thank you!
So what do you all think? What would you think if you discovered your Pastor or Imam or other spiritual leader on Steemit? Would it change what you think about him or her? I wouldn't reveal my name, but should I reveal my face? Let me know in the comments below.
[image by Andrew Worley]