I was thinking yesterday about all the things that I used to share online. I telegraphed my daily activities & viewpoints to the world: I blogged about politics, news, hobbies, friends, relationships, etc. I put up photos. I contributed to websites by writing articles, answering questions, and commenting on other posts. Now… not so much. I still do things, have hobbies, care about politics, engage with friends, go out, read books, etc. I just don’t blog about it. My smugmug account is under-utilized. I haven’t contributed articles recently. And I haven’t answered questions online recently. I used to be a very active contributor to the web. Now I’m just taking up space.
Am I concerned about privacy? A little, but not much. Truth is: there isn’t much privacy. A motivated person can find out about you, whether or not you actively manage your online presence. You have to work hard at it to be off-the-grid. And if you are, people will assume that you have something to hide, which may damage a reputation as much or more than if you were up-front about it all. For example: I know this one person who is a nut about being on-again-off-again with his/her online identity: unsearchable on FB, hidden profile on Match, doesn’t blog, has an unlisted phone number, etc. My joke about this person involves the witness protection program… and a rat.
Am I leading an uninteresting life? Nope. I have more and different kinds of activities than most people I know. I have cash, which means that I can afford to go places, unlike some of my younger friends. Plus, without kids and soccer practice or ballet lessons, I have time. This separates me from friends my age or older. I also have hobbies. It still shocks me how few people have hobbies.
So what is it? Perhaps it’s that I’ve been there, done that, got the shirt. It’s not new and exciting to me anymore. I don’t get an adrenaline rush from writing a great blog post. I hated user comments on my blog (bad experiences). I don’t get all warm-and-fuzzy when someone reaches out to me on Facebook. Most of the time, I don’t even look at the person’s profile anymore when I get a connection request on LinkedIn or FB.
But this may all change shortly. I am in discussions with someone about helping out with a Social Media Marketing company… this would necessitate my re-engaging in this space again. And it would undoubtedly give me a fresh perspective and a “twist” on the whole conversation, such that it would launch me back into the daily practice of managing my online identity. If so, you might see me blogging, tweeting, FBing, and getting on-board with every social media player in the marketplace.