I’ve never been a big fan of social media, but LinkedIn is a particularly irksome example of it. It’s essentially the corporate world’s equivalent of Instagram: it’s full of asses.
As much as I enjoy slandering LinkedIn, that isn’t where I’m going with this. I actually wanted to highlight a discussion I had with a colleague some weeks ago. I call him “Doctor Why” because he has a perfectly serviceable science PhD, but he has instead chosen to become an engineer. This raises the inevitable question: Whyyyyyyyy?
The good doctor stated that he wasn’t sure I really existed, because I have no online presence. From a philosophical perspective, this challenged my rather conventional outlook on selfhood: since people live so much of their lives online, are those of us who don’t somehow less real? I mean, I do have an online presence of sorts, but it’s my persona who lives here, not actually me.
Back in the early ’90s, anonymity was a given on the OG Internet. Maybe my reluctance to let go of that is because I’m generally recalcitrant or maybe it’s because I would prefer to avoid the potential disappointment of discovering that nobody actually cares one way or another. Truth be told, the primary reason is that some of the overlords at Hell Inc. are humourless and vindictive (ugly, too), so it really isn’t worth the risk.
At least my children won’t have to worry about me embarrassing them with my online indiscretions. I am more than equipped to embarrass them IRL.
