Re: Who knows that you blog?
This post has sparked an interesting discussion online, and it happens to be something I think about a lot.
When I joined Threads, something I didn’t really anticipate was that — thanks to its connection to Instagram — my real-life friends and family would follow me there. This was a new thing for a short-form micro-blogging platform. On other platforms like Twitter, Bluesky, Mastodon etc I felt a sense of insulation from my non-digital world. I had an internet identity which was distinct from my persona in “real life”.
So, because I would often post links to new blog posts on Threads, my friends and family started talking to me about my blog. My mum read my posts. And I found this supremely uncomfortable. (If you are reading this, Mum, it’s fine! You can keep reading my blog.)
I wonder how much of this is a generational thing. My relationship with the internet started when I was relatively young — let’s say in my early teens. When you’re that age, the real world is extremely complicated, challenging, and often upsetting. I used the internet as a refuge. And perhaps somewhere in my consciousness, that’s how I think about it still.
Contrast that with someone younger than me, who grew up when the internet was already a part of mainstream life. For Gen Z, going online wasn’t an escape from the real world; it was the real world. Equally, for someone older than me, they maybe didn’t start using the internet until they were into their adulthood, so it wasn’t an escape from reality for them either; they had found other ways to navigate the world as teens. I really wonder whether us Millennials are uniquely placed to have this experience.
My “real world” life is, thankfully, much happier than it was when I was 12. But I do maintain a sense that “internet Peter” is actually a different person to “physical Peter”, and there’s a real discomfort in the idea that those two worlds might collide.
I don’t fully understand the psychology behind all this, but it seems like my experience is not unique amongst bloggers. I’m utterly fascinated by it all.