0208F: Semi-Anonymity



In the realm of social media, my life is pretty much an open book.

Ever since I left home, admittedly I've been pretty open about most of my life. Sure, some parts will always be secret and not meant for public consumption whether out of propriety or that natural need to keep some things away from the public eye. But a lot of my life has been pretty much out there, which sort of reflects why I embrace the value in coming out for fellow members of the LGBT community. I did my time in the closet and now I try to live more openly and proudly.

But at the same time, there will always be the lure of secrecy and the sort of anonymity that the internet can offer. After living this whole principled staff of keeping a lot of my life open and out there (blame my love for Google), sometimes you just want to pull back and hide away a bit. And while I don't regret my general stance of addressing privacy concerns by carefully curating my public image as opposed to trying to hide away in a most futile manner. sometimes you wonder.

So I've recently started experimenting with an alternate Twitter account to sort of take step behind the curtain, but not in a significant manner. I say not significant because anyone who has known me for a significant period of time should eventually be able to discern who I am given a few interactions. But for the most part, I'm sort of a new man, or at least one with fewer filters and thus more empowered to be significantly more liberal in my conversations. It's interesting to compare how I handle things in my primary social media accounts and how I handle things with my alter - there's something to be gleaned from this experience. And that has me rethinking if the way I am in my main profiles is really how I want to be.

But in this social media age that we live in, it becomes quite important to curate your public life that is visible to your work peers, colleagues and potential customers. You don't want to give off the wrong impression just because of a drunken night or two. And so the indirect censorship you subject yourself to because of how you want to be perceived or at least because of an effort to avoid misinterpretation by others outside your immediate social circle. In most things they don't matter but in other ways they still do.

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