A few years back I decided to scale back on my online life. I used to be active on several social media platforms and had many friends/followers on them. I still have those accounts, but I am no longer active on any of them using my original account. After years on social media, I realized I was posting not because I wanted to, but because I felt like I should. And in ways people expected. The pressure to do things according to what was expected of me made it harder to be genuine. My online persona did not feel like me anymore. What started as a means for connection started to feel like a stage. A place where I had to live up to the image of me that people who know me have in their minds.
These days, I use an account that hides my identity. I use a different name and photo. It’s not about pretending to be someone I’m not. It’s more about trying to be more of who I am. I get to post about anything and everything I want on my new accounts. I don’t have to worry about what people who know me think of them. I’ve realized that worrying about the opinions of my friends and family was affecting me. It made me post based on people's expectations. I couldn’t explore other options because I kept thinking about what people I knew would think.
It was awkward at first to start using my new anonymous accounts. I wasn’t sure what to post or how to express myself. I wasn’t sure who I was without the usual audience of people I knew. But as time passed, I started to appreciate how this anonymity has given me a chance to grow creatively. I could explore new ideas, and share opinions I used to hesitate to express. I could also discover different sides of myself I never knew existed. It was like starting fresh—no labels, no judgments.
With my new accounts, I feel that I have more freedom to be who I am. Yes, other people can see it, but that doesn’t matter as much to me. I keep myself as anonymous as possible anyway. Plus, I don’t even have that many followers on the accounts. I don’t even have many views on them either. The accounts now are more of an outlet for me to express myself. A means to grow and discover more about myself with every new post. My social media these days is not about building a following or getting likes anymore. It’s about me.
There are a lot of perks with anonymity. I can share what I want without worrying about how people from my family, work, or community would think. I can be who I am beyond what people see or expect of me. I find it is a better way to push myself creatively. Without fear of criticism, I can make bolder steps in my creative process. I could do things I never would have considered before. I used to always second-guess my ideas because I was worried about the opinions of the people who knew me. But now, I just create and share it. If I feel good about it, that’s enough for me.
I was going through one of my online feeds and I realized that I am not alone. I have read that many people are using online accounts for the same reason. It’s not about having the freedom to troll people online. It's about the freedom to create a space where we can be ourselves. If the early days of social media were about keeping up with others, now it’s about returning to our roots. It's about learning to be ourselves again. The idea of showing off the "best version" of ourselves on social media is not important to me anymore. These days it’s about learning to be the most authentic version of me.
In a space where I am not my job, not my age, not my ethnicity, and not my social status, I have no worries about speaking my mind. I learn more about what I want to do or say because the freedom in the anonymity is giving me the space to do so. The less I focus on the pressure I feel from people I know, the more I can listen to my voice.
We all deserve a space where we can just be ourselves, with no pressure. While I still maintain my original accounts, I am usually on my private accounts more. Maybe one day, I’ll feel comfortable enough to merge both of them. But for now, I’m enjoying the opportunity of freedom that my anonymity provides.
Living in a world where everything feels public, it is liberating to claim a bit of privacy in our lives. Maybe social media is not about being seen, but about seeing ourselves better. It's about looking at ourselves in a different light. Now that anonymity is giving me the space to grow, and become authentically me, I’ll make use of it for as long as I need.
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