Hear me out.
Many of us have gleefully chuckled at Timothée Chalamet’s pre-fame YouTube vids, but there’s a lesson in them. His seemingly harmless digital footprint has followed him for years and there’s much fodder in it for us to paw through!
I’ve been on a mission to reclaim and tamp down my online footprint for years and one way to measure my progress is to periodically type my name into the old search bar. I was delighted to see books I worked on, articles I’m quoted in, my website, a few obits, and little else. Given that I once had multiple blogs, Facebook, Instagram, Tumblr, MySpace, and Twitter, it was a relief to feel like I have a more nuanced and controlled image / narrative of my online self.
Yeah it’s a little navelgazey, but I’m on the job market and in my 30s, so it makes sense to be on top of this stuff.