Got my peaches out in Georgia (tea)

I'm not over #TheTryGuys drama, yet.

"The bizarre tone of the Try Guys’ video suggests a more disturbing dynamic: that as young people congregate, separately and alone, seeking comfort from strangers, they are in fact constructing a prison for their idols, one fashioned out of eyeballs, anxiety and BetterHelp ads. Maybe fame has always been this way. But fans’ emotions are no longer filtered through ticket or album sales; they’re heard directly, constantly, at all hours, on all the platforms people visit to generate and extinguish bad feelings in a never-ending cycle. You can imagine Ned Fulmer watching the video, seeing his former friends solemnly tamping down the freshly laid dirt, all in an effort to mollify an audience of strangers, and realizing that however badly he may have messed up, he was also finally free." This concluding paragraph from the New York Times article sums up my messy emotions about the recent scandal that involved the dissemination of the 'Wife guy'.

I consume content from #YouTube every day, and sometimes it's the only source of entertainment for me during a busy workday, and for good reason- I get to learn & be entertained all via watching "medium-form" video #content (I define anything under 20 mins as medium-form). I choose my social media accounts to follow carefully and as the #TryGuys channel is one of my options for entertainment, I couldn't help but go into detail about what happened and how fans revealed personal details of one of the beloved 'characters'. Many people were even debating if his personal mistakes should be affecting his career but besides the manager-employee relationship dynamic, it is a great lesson on how our social media identities affect our careers.

It got me thinking about the personas we create for #socialmedia & while we might not admit it, we keep up certain facades on every social media channel that we are active on. This can be freeing as it gives us so much creativity to work with and also to be selective about our personalities and/or our lives. This is why it's so important to figure out your niche as an active social media creator.

I admittedly do it too- and while I'd like to think I'm very transparent on the two social media I'm active on {LinkedIn (#professional-first) & Instagram (personal interests first)} - it makes me wonder if I would ever reveal my true emotions, feelings, or even downfalls and ask for help or even hope to find solutions for the messy person behind this 'persona' I have inadvertently created on different social media platforms.

The answer for me- like most of you- is no. I would never reveal details or share my true tribulations with anyone as my experience can be very different from yours. I like to process my worries alone and hope for a congregation when I celebrate my wins. Does this make me selective, subjective, or just human?

Ned's public reveal of infidelity is hard to process because he decided to harp down on the 'Wife-guy' identity and showed up with that #identity consistently. This is why his personal life has affected his work identity more deeply and if he does decide to come back into the limelight, he will have to revamp his public identity.

Where do you draw the line personally while building your #PersonalBrand? What has your experience been? #identitydesign