I had a lot of social media accounts. Not just a wide array of accounts on different services, but also a lot of accounts on the same services. For example, somehow over the years, I had accumulated 8 Twitter accounts.
How did this happen?
Well, how does anything online happen? It started with with some idea. Usually an idea for a blog or podcast that I didn’t follow through on.
Over the last year I whittled down the number of Twitter accounts to two. Both are account I registered early, within days of each other, but that is where the similarity ends. One has been my online identity as a nostalgia blogger that I use daily. While the other is just my name, which I never use.
I am a big fan of using social media as a way to connect with people who share my interests. So what do I do when I develop an interest outside nostalgia? I wrestled with the idea of having two accounts. Which is mainly the reason I have held onto my name account.
This is something I would have done years ago, when I didn’t recognize that the strength of social media comes from using it to connect rather than as some sort of amplifier. That ain’t me anymore though.
So I have decided I am just going to use my one account. The one that I have actively used for over 11 years.
Naturally this is going to be a bit awkward for people who follow me and expect me to just talk about Pac-Man and the Rubik’s Cube. So I will lose people along the way. Hopefully the ones who remain will enjoy getting to know other sides of me.
If you decide to follow me based on my writing here or work at LexBlog. Be prepared to see posts about bronze age comics as well as my opinions on blogging, social media, reducing noise online and fast food.
While I have a blog and podcast, I am not a brand. I am a person with an array of interests. My Twitter account needs to evolve to be a reflection of that.
I have stood almost anonymously behind my account name for so long that this will be a challenge for me. But I am committed. It will be a gradual process, but in the end it will make me a better blogger and more importantly a more present social media user.
The day I signed up for my Twitter account, it was at the urging of a co-worker. When I asked them what it was for, they said something like, “You use it to just show what you are about.”
That was a pretty good way to sum up Twitter. 11 years later, I am going to continue to embrace that and let my Twitter account evolve to match who I am, rather that trying to slavishly conform for some artificial expectation based on what I have told myself it should be.