On Writing & Online Identity

The idea of having to maintain a social media presence for the sake of my writing career has always peeved me to say the least.

COPYRIGHT: 'Internet' by Trayko Popov

As a child who grew up in the early 2000s when the internet had become a normality of everyday life, I’ve always been hyper-aware of my relationship to technology. I was a perceptive kid, and the warnings from my parents and school teachers effectively terrified me into being cautious online. I would play my flash games and take tests for class, and that was about it. It wasn’t until I was 12 that I made a social media account, and it carried no pictures of me and bore a fake name. Though I was a kid that definitely shouldn’t have been on MySpace, I had somehow already come to recognize the concept of an online identity (thankfully for present-day me). I didn’t want to do or say anything that could inflict harm to my real life, or to signal to my parents that I'd been using the internet far more than they had thought. So, I hid myself.

After keeping myself completely anonymous for years, eventually as I grew into adolescence, I created more social media accounts to keep up with my friends. Yet, I was still a bit hesitant to put myself fully online. I rarely ever posted pictures of myself or made any mention of my real life; I was simply there to throw my friends some hearts and laugh at a funny post ever now and again. But now, as an adult, I don’t find the need to go on social media ever. I no longer feel the need to interact with my mutual's posts in order to feel like we're actual friends, but instead find myself wondering, “why does anyone even bothering putting themselves out there like this anymore?”

Because the fact of the matter is that once it’s on the internet, it’s permanent. You may not remember that you tweeted an embarrassing thought in the heat of the moment five years ago, but there is one person out there who saw that post, and will forever associate it with your face. There’s people that think of the pictures you posted in high school and your Facebook game spam posts every time they hear your name. Eeesh. I was never the most social kid (evidently) but I knew my limits and never felt the need to put myself out there in order to feel normal, or liked.

Now as an adult, I have my social media accounts because I have to have them, not necessarily because I want to have them. I don’t like posting about my interests or my beliefs, and I don’t like making my personal life a spectacle for others to laugh at or judge. I appreciate my identity and my privacy, and I don’t feel that having an online following is indicative of a great writer.

However, when viewing this topic from the perspective of the companies and employers, I understand why they view social media as a very important aspect of the career. Social media runs the world, and writing is inherently an art form grounded in being social. Hiring writers that know how to manipulate their online identities is to their benefit; they know how to satisfy the masses, and they have a core audience they are bringing along with them. Similarly, I can also comprehend why maintaining a certain point of view online is important. When you are writing for a major company, your words belong not only to you, but your employer as well. While I’m all for people having the ability to express themselves online in any way that they choose, writers having to monitor the things they post/support online seems quite common.

With most of the writers whose social media presences’ I examined, all of the content was very sterile and safe. The occasional repost of an interesting article, the expected posts about mundane mornings, and the always-exciting mention of the new tv shows and movies they’re watching: all inoffensive and traditional social media posts. It’s worth noting that while I did see a few posts referencing politics, all of the writers that I enjoy/support are left-leaning, which I consider to be more commercially-friendly than spouting off right-wing nonsense and Covid conspiracy theories.

As I venture into my professional writing career, I will continue to be cautious of the image of myself that I paint online. Though I wish I could exclude myself from social media completely, it’s completely unwise for an aspiring writer in 2021 to do so. It’s all about staying connected nowadays; if I have to make some silly, relatable posts and fake some smiles to do so, so be it. Great writers are chameleons that take to their surroundings, and I have to learn to do just the same.