Identity Crisis Going Out of Control

First, you want to remain anonymous. Then you want to be popular but you still want your privacy. And then you are worried about your employers snooping around the Internet. And then you're worried about what your family and friends would say if they ever see your entries about them in your blog or Twitter or Facebook. And by now, you have multiple identities you've maintain online and you're afraid your head is going to explode!

Seriously, am I the only one who feels like this?

On my Facebook account, I have set up lots and lots of filter. Filter for boss, filter for friends, filter for family members, filter for fellow gamers, filter for classmates, filter for coworkers, and filter for unknown friend requesters. Every time I want to post something, I have to check first or risk second guessing myself over and over again until I get sick.

The same goes with emails. There is emails for work, school, personal, spam, newsletter and if you're lucky, your employer will give you another extra emails for free. And it goes on and on with your other accounts.

So that's one thing to worry about, mixing your private life and work life. Then you have to worry about snooping!

For example, I have a Live Journal account by the name Hikari (not my real username so don't even think about it). See, I have a friend who is curious enough to search my username on Google and checked everyone with that username (real story). So maybe user details in Live Journal is not complete but who's to say that the other websites won't have it?

Thank goodness I don't use the same username on every account!

I have created several complete profiles to avoid my employers from spying on me. By complete profile, I mean something like this:

Username: Elliot1977
Real Name: Ellianor Maximus
Birthday: 12 January 1977
Gender: Transexual (hahaha)
Race: White
Country: United States

Heh, the name sounds stupid. I made that up just now but I do have those fake profiles for my personal use. Very effective against those peeping toms.

However, it's hard to maintain especially when you're like me who just can't make up my mind. For example, the other day I thought, "Eh, what the harm. Let's connect my blog on Blogger to my Yahoo! Pulse. My family and friends will be able to see it.". And the next day, my first thought was "What the heck was I thinking? I write about my inner thoughts on that blog! What if I hurt their feelings?!".

So, being able to create multiple profiles for different purposes is great to maintain your privacy but it is certainly a headache to maintain. Why can't we handle all accounts in one, single place? I'm sick of having to maintain this multiple lives....

We're the new James Bond

I kid you not