#I've watched privacy issues get worse and worse as the internet has grown

[thatfilthyanimal]

Oh I suppose now is as good a time as any to point something out to my younger followers:

You know how my sidebar has my age, info, disorder, etc? Yeah those posts saying not to talk about that stuff are legit. You deserve your anonymity online and it's even more important than you think. If you talk about these things online at LEAST use a sockpuppet account that doesn't show your face/name anywhere. You don't want this to come back to haunt you later.

I've been on the internet since I was 9 or so, and I'm 34. I've used variations of this handle for more than 15 years. I have a papertrail leading back to my handles before that and thus my irl name, I have old connections that I guess would have counted as e-celebs by todays standards that means eyes are often on me, I've got my voice permanently recorded saying slurs and personal info on a podcast, I've had people google my name from old artwork and post my entire home address and phone number online-- I don't get anonymity so I stopped bothering to run from it.

A lot of my being open online is because there's no point for me hiding it anymore-- but lord, if you still have that safety net, believe me, take it. TAKE IT. KEEP IT. PROTECT IT. Don't see what I'm doing and think it's normal, PLEASE.

I leave it all public because people who really want this info can and will find it anyway. I leave it there so I can still own it. (People can't continue to try to hurt me with things I'm not hiding.) But I wouldn't of had to if I'd changed usernames more often, kept my personal info to myself in the first place, etc. I didn't listen and didn't care about myself and I'm paying the price for that in adulthood-- don't do what I did. I have to live with this and you shouldn't.