Carrie Callahan

With my last post, I shared a few of my disorganized thoughts and experiences on forming a digital self . This post, I'm going to explore some of my methodology for hopefully crafting said self and maintaining sanity IRL (In Real Life). First, some guidelines you should consider: Don't Spam You know this one and I know you know this one because every writing blog worth its salt mentions this at least once. Basically, you are what you post online. So, if you post nothing but advertisements for your next book you risk becoming a cardboard cut-out or a billboard. Don't flatten yourself. Keep it Reasonable  Don't just make a million accounts, thinking you're going to get a million followers on each one. In order to have an online presence you kind of have to engage in the community. You need to reblog, retweet, like, share, and comment. If you have too many accounts you won't be able to keep up with all of them; you'll be spreading yourself too thin. Ins...

I've recently been up to a bit of housecleaning - my digital house, that is. I'm cancelling old accounts and deleting unused e-mail addresses. This is primarily focused on an old handle of mine that I'm working on phasing out. Though it is cute and relatively unique, I won't be using it much anymore. Instead, I'll be behind the ReeCallahan name. Naturally, this sacrifices quite a bit of anonymity - and isn't that a good thing? I've been thinking pretty heavily on this topic and what it comes down to is what I do and don't want people to know about me. In the past I preferred to be extra private. I still am to some degree - I check my facebook privacy controls weekly to make sure only friends can see my posts. However, I think it's time to mature and move on. I do think this move away from anonymity and into the realm of accountability is an important life step for me. I no longer want to feel privileged to act and post silly, immature content wit...