Lots of people are making a twitter for work and a twitter for play or a facebook profile that’s “professional” and one that’s “social”. I think it’s dumb, at least if we lived in my perfect world. In my perfect world, people wouldn’t be ashamed by having fun, act differently around different people, and brown-nosing perfectionists at work who are only skin deep. They wouldn’t cater to the assumption that some people only care about where they’ve worked and where they’ve been published, while others only want to see how they look and who they’re with on a saturday night. They would be sincere in their representation of self, and if they didn’t they’d realize that they’re just hurting themselves.
In my imperfect (but perfectly acceptable) world, I recognize a genuine fear of perception, both by the public and oneself, and understand that people sometimes have a practical need to compartmentalize who they think they are.
Participation in public profiles of whatever form creates hyper-awareness, and sometimes in doing that, I think we actually miss the real deal of ourselves and others.
I teeter with where I am on this spectrum balancing my perfect world and imperfect reality, and really enjoy thinking about it.
Jen Bokoff 