I just went to the park for a walk. When I got out of my car and started on the trail, I thought, “Man, I shoulda brought my sunglasses.” That thought was joined instantly with, “I’ll Tweet that.” Then I realized I hadn’t brought my phone, or anything else I could access Twitter with. On purpose.
And then I had to spend some length of time thinking about why I needed to post on Twitter that I’d forgotten my sunglasses. Twitter is a hyper-extension of the ability to create an online persona. I’ve lived and worked online for years, and my persona there has developed dramatically from my first reviews on Amazon to my blog, my Flickr photos, my Facebook and Twitter accounts and much more.
I don’t think I’ve ever posted anything untrue about myself online. But almost everything I post only displays a part of my real-life personality. For years, until very recently, I’ve written very little about politics, though I love politics more than most other things in this world. For professional reasons, I felt it impolitic [haha] to broadcast my personal views online. And frankly, I still think it’s better not to do so very often. I’ve found very little helpful online about politics. So few people can be rational about it. Those who are [Roger Abramson, Patrick Ruffini, ACK all come to mind -- though I don't vote the way any of them do very often] have my admiration.
But in real life, I’m a very active campaign volunteer and sometime contributor. I volunteered on my first political campaign before I was eligible to vote. I love good local and state political gossip more than I’d like to admit. I’ve missed only one opportunity to vote since I turned 18 — and I didn’t vote then on purpose. [I couldn't reconcile my opposing views on raising the inhumanely high sales tax in Davidson County further [unconscionable] and on providing needed funding for schools [critical] in the referendum in 2005. So I stayed home, with the knowledge that the proposal would be defeated by a landslide anyway.]
I also don’t talk a lot about work or the people in my life. I’ll share amusing anecdotes about my kids from time to time. Funny things my husband does. But this blog is not about them, and for me, that’s a critical point. I love to read blogs about families, but I think I’m just too private a person to share all my thoughts and feelings about mine here. When I was adopting my son in 2005/2006, I blogged very little about the process — though I have read some fabulous adoption blogs. In part, I believed [and still do] that it is his story to share or keep to himself, as he chooses when he is older. In part, I was reluctant to jinx the process, either literally or karmically, by posting something that adoption authorities in the U.S. or Guatemala could easily find if they Googled me.
I have all kinds of amusing [to me] thoughts about my family, about funny things that my sisters do, about how crazy my mother is [which honestly, I don't post because I'm just like her, not because she'd be mad to read what I wrote]. But none of those are what I share with you online.
Last fall, I re-met on Facebook and fell in love with a college acquaintance — didn’t blog a bit of it til right before we got married.
I haven’t set out to do all these things, to shape a particular persona. But as I started thinking about all of that on my walk, I just considered how powerful all these tools are — to show what we want, to hide what we want. I’m so curious now about what YOU don’t say online, either.
On the other hand, I’m not about to start sharing any more, so I won’t ask more from you, either.