E is for "Effervescent"

As I was reading this piece by Olivia Sudjic on The Guardian regarding being on the internet is slowly becoming an increasingly dominant theme and/or influence in fiction, I had only one thought: what we are willing to share online could just be a half-truth or even a lie.

What I mean by that is, even as much as I try to be truthful in my writing here, or I strive to have this space to be a brain dump, I still find myself censoring my own words. The me that you may be reading right now isn't a whole picture of me, and that is all that everyone else will see – even if you piece together all my social media accounts, my tweets, my past blogs, my youtube and podcast playlists, etc. Unless a correspondence or a conversation actually happens, my internet presence is indeed just a persona.

Oddly enough, we're encouraged to create one -or at least have a LinkedIn account so that potential employers can verify that, yes, you exist in the digital realm as well. I've heard someone say that having no internet presence makes one suspicious, even up to the point of marking it as a red flag. In dating, most of us are probably guilty of stalking our potential dates before the first coffee meet-up. People younger than me probably have it rough – acceptance among their peers and FOMO looming over their shoulders.

I do admit now that having a minimal social media presence can backfire sometimes – I have no idea what my friends and family are doing unless they come out of the woodwork and tell me. I am the last to know, and sometimes I have to play catch-up while everyone seems to be on the same page. But there's beauty in talking, instead of passively seeing a photo and acknowledging it with a like. Reversely, I like being able to regale friends with my (mis)adventures in complete detail. The way I see it, my current internet presence is probably an ice-cube size tip of the iceberg, and I am much much more than that.