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"people still behave differently in different environments." Mostly I don't. Nearing my 7th decade, I have spent most of my adult life seeking convergence of
by vcg3rd 4y ago
"people still behave differently in different environments."
Mostly I don't. Nearing my 7th decade, I have spent most of my adult life seeking convergence of my private and public self. It's one reason that since the early 90s I have used my initials as my username everywhere.
I highly value privacy but have no need of anonymity, though I understand it's life or death for too many.
And I don't mean I would be the same around a stranger as I am my wife of 35 years. I mean I would be my honest, authentic self for each context. Twitter or nestr, Facebook or Reddit, church or mall, my hometown USA or Berlin.
I rarely comment here because I rarely have any value to add.
- conductr 4y agoI can relate with most of this. But I also know I have some unpopular opinions on certain matters. I will discuss on HN/Reddit - or even IRL if I'm talking to a stranger/someone where risk is low of it getting back to "core" network. In other environments, I'm likely to just keep silent on those opinions. Even then, in some environments (work/school/church), some topics are completely off limits and I won't even sit in silence (eg. if coworkers talk politics/religion I just physically leave the conversation). I too feel I'm my true authentic self in each scenarios, I'm just calculating risk, disruption, impact to reputation, etc and can always choose silence as a safe option. Although, safe discussion on these topics is often the most interesting to me. It's controversial stuff where my opinions have reason 'to me' but I'm open to hearing other points of view. I don't see my thoughts as immutable so if some stranger on the internet says something I haven't considered, I might just change my way of thinking entirely.