Social Networks, Anonymity, and Sharing.

Social networks can be hard to keep up with these days. Especially when you're trying to share amongst many of them at once. I've seen the evolution of social networking happen. From email lists, to internet relay chats, to aol instant messenger. The original blogging social network Livejournal, whose days have long passed. Photobucket, the original pic sharing host. Then came the rise and fall of Myspace. Now we are onto Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Kik.

The term used to describe all this blogging, posted photos/videos, status updates, etc that are constantly occurring is "life streaming." But how much of your life should you in fact be streaming? Where should the lines be drawn at the content that you stream? This is important shit to consider before you go tearing ass across social networks spilling the beans about your deepest darkest secrets. 

Remember, everything that you post on the internet becomes a part of your digital footprint. The links you post, the websites you visit, the photos you put up.While a digital footprint isn't necessarily a bad thing, the information contained in it can easily be data mined, and the information can be used for evil purposes.

The term "Anonymous" on the internet is highly misunderstood. Anonymous isn't really some hacker group, it is a catchall term for those who prefer to remain...well...anonymous on the internet. Everyone has their motivations for remaining anonymous, and they aren't all bad. It could just be the fact that they don't want their personal information spread out for everyone in the world to see. In other words, they keep their digital footprint as distanced from themselves as possible. There are varying degrees of anonymity. Some take it to the extreme, others are more liberal. But all in all, what we have in common is we aren't sharing too much of our personal details.

I personally don't really like the idea of casual people I come across on the internet really knowing TOO much about me. There isn't any particular reason for it. I could explain as being paranoid, or as being safety minded, but really I just prefer to remain fairly aloof from my activities. This gives me a certain amount of license to speak my mind freely without having to worry too much about people's opinion of me.

Also, it gives me the ability to simply disappear if I choose to do so. Poof, I'm gone. Easy enough.

Of course there are probably nearly a hundred social networks that I am a part of, accounts I have picked up over the years. Accounts I have signed up for, used briefly, and forgotten. Then there are the accounts which I use currently. But how to tie them all together in a way that makes sense? Or at least remember that I have them. And how to keep them updated? I used to use Ping.FM although honestly it has its hiccups - Also the RSS feed feature doesn't work worth a shit. How about friendfeed? Which is great, except it only posts to Facebook or Twitter by default. Such a quandary.