init

It's done.

Over the past few months, I've been slowly wiping my old presence from traditional online spaces- my social media, Google, and other accounts are completely gone.

I'm not doing this for the sake of anonymity, but instead for the sake of separation. I think that something that made the early internet (and places like Geminispace or Neocities) special was not only that the internet was a special PLACE you had to go to, that you weren't constantly connected to, but also the identity you had online was one entirely separate from your identity in real life.

When I was younger, I never liked the thought of putting anything from my real life on the internet- even things as simple as a profile picture of my actual face. I liked an internet full of real people hiding behind (or better yet, expressing themselves through) digital masks entirely separate from their societal forms, and nothing more.

Now I have "hitogata", interacting with the digital world through nothing more than Gemini protocol messages and git commits, with no face to the name. It's much more fun that way.

Sorry if this is all very esoteric, I figured I'd go all-out for a first post.

fab

I can really understand your point. I also just interact with the (smolnet) public through my pseudonyme. I feel comfortable as 'fab' and I won't with my real name so much. But also if you'd know my real name, you wouldn't find me on the internet, because I took alot of care not to be present online under my real name. My real life is completely separate from my online presence.

But I also use a pseudonyme because of anonymity. I have a past. And I don't want people from earlier days find out about my online presence.

drmollytov

I find this very relatable. I was thinking the other day about how no one who only knew me online via my "real name" can find me now, except for the three-page site that holds my portfolio and resume (byeee, LinkedIn!). It feels a bit sad, but mostly freeing. My psuedonymity contains multitudes. :)