digital masks

Posted at 22 Jan 11:21 am. 1 comment

I’m attempting to bring this blog into the 21st century by updating it with plugins, a horrible task if one is indecisive. The sheer variety available is quite astounding.

One type in particular keeps catching my eye: those extolling greater connectivity. Where else can you find me? one app asks before listing some of the most popular platforms available today: Facebook, Friendster, digg, Flickr, Orkut, etc.

I’ll not kid myself – I’m tempted to jump on the bandwagon and embrace the kind of accessibility they’re dangling in front of my nose. (Basic internet marketing: the more people know who you are and how they can reach you, the better.) But a greater part of me isn’t so happy.

I am by nature a wary sort of person. I’ve struggled with this in the eleven blogs I’ve had in the past eight years – where to draw the line between being truthful and overexposing myself? In person I’m about as likely to divulge a gruesome tidbit of my sex life just for the shock value as tell you about my day, but the difference, you see, is that I know who I’m speaking to. I simply don’t like the idea of some stranger knowing more about me than I know about them.

Once upon a time I used to track through cyberspace members of online groups I subscribed to, just for fun. I learnt their real names, siblings’ names, birthdays, personal descriptions, hopes, dreams and issues. With just a bit of determination and no complex computer skills – I was about thirteen then – all this information was available. When you think about it, that’s quite unnerving.

(While time and internet privacy campaigns appear to have wised up my generation, kids growing up with the Net seem even more blase about sharing their personal details than we were. Coupled with their tendency to camwhore incessantly and speak to/add everyone who drops by their blogs/social networking apps in order to look more popular, it’s a breeding ground for disaster.)

Made even more cautious by the results of my trawlings, I lurked for years under a whole host of personas, email addresses and websites. It took five years before I would even reveal my real hair color to online friends. I never really grew out of it.

Now, facing me: the option of providing randoms a link to my Facebook, the repository of my friends, pictures, personal references to my life.

It’s a massive step. Probably not one I’ll be taking anytime soon, either, although of course with a bit of determination it’s easy enough to find out who I am.