Is Everything Social?

I have a substack. I have an instagram account, and most of the rest of the usual suspects too. I am on TikTok and Bluesky and Mastedon and apparently, though I never use it, threads. I use my YouTube account every day. Then there are home exchange platforms, Airbnb and Open Table. I’m sure I’ve forgotten a bunch.

I have so many aliases out there, I sometimes forget which is which. Am I the only one who does this? The thing is, I had a brush with internet fame when I was in college. It was enough to prove to me I never wanted to show my whole self to anyone I wasn’t married to. We’re not friends. This platform is a project.

Am I the only one who does this? As more and more things become social media, I’m finding it harder and harder to keep my separate clubs separate. Facebook started out being the place where I connected with journalism school friends. Only them. We could watch TV together even if we were living on opposite sides of the continent, we could disect media, we could be sarcastic and use professional jargon and gossip and share private jokes.

Then people’s families started getting facebook accounts and while any of us could reasonably exclude our mothers from Facebook or put a filter on who saw what, how can anyone remember everything we say to everyone on a daily basis? How can you exclude your niece or your cousin from one of the regular aspects of your daily life when they ask to be included? Don’t you love your family? Suddenly, it was necessary to find a compromise between being 100% me on Facebook and…