It sucks that social media frames the individual exclusively as their current self. I don't know that it's intentional? But alongside your art/tweets/whatever being your "brand", you're known exclusively by what you're saying/doing in that exact moment. The past is absent.

The internet is often exposed to who you are by your use of it, and thus you are seen by what you are saying/doing. But people are always changing, always adding and removing parts of themselves, and yet the internet seems to frame the present moment as who you are, entirely.

For example, I draw a few feral pieces and suddenly i'm "a feral artist". This past few months has gotten me labeled "confederate furry", and through that "fascist" (as per usual w/ twitter). I've been discussing psychology and sociology for years, but those are irrelevant now.

I've touched on this before in a reply, but it bears repeating. There's no sense of identity permanence on social media. You "are" what content you are producing in that exact moment, and to "be" something you must produce it consistently, with no changes https://twitter.com/foxmusk/status/1349196660572901376

This mixes with the polarized ideologies of the internet and how left-of-center = "antifa" and right-of-center = "fascist" and you're stuck forever walking a tightrope of maintaining an imposed sense of "brand" but also remaining politically rigid, or risk punishment.

I think this is partially a result of how social media introduces people to eachother, thus introducing your new followers to exactly who you are in that moment. Not many people are going to dig through a new follow's past to see how consistent they've been.

However, recognizing the reason doesn't reduce the problem, since the individual still HAS to play by the rules or risk being punished by an audience that had expectations of them that they failed to meet. The trouble is, i don't know one solves that problem.

I don't mean for this thread to burn out so suddenly but i'm at an impasse on how one goes further with this. I've talked for years about how the idea of "brand" is forced on socially known individuals, and every time I have others nod in agreement but no solution is reached.