How much about your online life do your family & friends know?

[Spots]

I keep my immediate family mostly up to date with what I do online, but that's about it and as far as I know they've never bothered to look too deeply into any profiles I've had in the past. I like that the anonymity of the Internet allows for greater creative freedom and being able to be myself and not get judged as much as I would in real life. So, I like to keep online stuff and real life stuff separate, although 90% of my life is online so it's not that hard for me.

[kero]

The internet used to be where I went to get away from people I knew IRL and for a while nobody else I knew my age or my relatives were using it so I could do whatever and it never got back to any of them. I mostly blogged (LiveJournal) and used it like therapy to hash out my IRL problems and experiences with strangers. That came to an end with the rise of social media and when I self hosted my blog I’d cross post to FB. I took my site down years ago because I felt too exposed, like I was oversharing and making myself a target for discussing mental health. I am rebuilding a whole new site and literally have no idea what to write right now that I won’t be embarrassed by in the future.

[bby]

only a couple close people know my website. and some people know i have a website, but not the url. i don't want people from my past (especially old assholes from school) looking me up so i've done a lot to hide myself from irl ppl. that includes going by different names/usernames on everything and changing details about myself.

sometimes i debate just taking my site down and keeping everything offline cause i constantly worry about being found or accidentally doxxing myself. i still enjoy making new pages and stuff, but i don't necessarily want people to read it. it's just a creative outlet for me.

[grovyle]

Unfortunately my past experiences with letting my family and irl friends know about my online personas (TM) have been really bad. From mocking, to questioning, to trying to use it against me, to risking people I don't like outing me. It has brought me lots of anxiety in the past, so I'm trying to do it less and less. But lately I haven't been sharing much of myself online, either. I'd say instagram is where I do it the most, but I've been toning it down these past few months and I don't think the amount of info I put out about myself can come back and bite me in the ass in any way.
I used to have a problem of oversharing on twitter (left when He Bought The Site), and even though irl people didn't follow me there, in the end I wasn't comfortable sharing that much about myself to "strangers" either. So maybe it's not a matter of who I share it with, but rather WHAT I share. It's something I'm working on through all the social media/sites/apps that I'm on rn.
As for forum profiles, sites, and any social media that isn't instagram or facebook, I don't think I'll ever share with my family. Friends might have the honor of following me on tumblr but not many of them know what it is, and those who do already follow me, although we don't talk much anymore, irl or otherwise. But I'd like to keep my tumblr and my future site mostly a secret from everyone irl, they've made me have enough bad times already 

[Y2KStardust]

My family know things, but fairly misc. things like that I *have* a tumblr - and outside of facebook which I use to talk to them, none of them follow me on anything unless I approve it. Even my little sister, we don't follow each other on instagram or anything and I've told her as kindly as I can that it's on purpose, that I think spaces apart from each other is important.

[urgellx]

From what i know, the people around me know just what i feel comfortable
sharing publicly with them or on official platforms with official names. I'd
say that they know a very tiny amount of the very large digital footprint that
i've amassed over the years, just like everyone else who only knows one handle.
I've told over the years quite a few things by ricochet but without enough
substance for them to properly grasp what i do online and i'd like to keep it
that way, it feels a lot more safe to compartmentalize your online usernames to
specific interests or make a general one without delving too much into details.

PS : Maybe it'll change but right now, like you can probably see, i'm very much
in favor of online personas, just not the way people handle them or the way
people interact in general.

Still, that doesn't mean that i'm not interested in keeping links or that i'm
not trying to connect with them through the internet, a lot of the things i
write only have one audience right now : the people that i know on real life.
So i have to stay similar to what i'm like in real life but that's not really a
problem, right now, i think that it's better to be a bit boring than to be the
next person that is just so eccentric that they become someone that people
call, follow and interact with just to milk them for laughs.

To join what other people have also said, most people aren't interested in the
same things so it would probably be useless to tell them precisely what you do,
what you want, and what you need. I just share what i'm comfortable with.

Have a good day !

[BlazingCobaltX]

Due to the combination of being closeted during my childhood/teens and being ridiculed for any interest that was perceived nerdy, I have been very secretive about my online identity. There have been a few times where, due to my own negligence, IRL people were close to finding my main username. Someone finding my online accounts would mean they have access to my venting posts and personal thoughts; it feels like an invasion of privacy.

Despite this paranoia, I stupidly never thought about using several usernames to shield facets of myself. If I had done that, sharing my username with RL people would not be that stressful. For places like Discord where my online and RL presence converge, I had to think real hard about the username I would give myself. One that may lead online people to my RL presence, but not the other way around.

Even if I were to sanitise my accounts or would make entirely new ones, I wouldn't share it with RL people. I've become too used to permanently hiding a part of myself around people.

[kurohaato]

I've shown off my website to a few friends, but besides the irls I chat with on insta and tiktok my digital and analogue lives are disconnected. I like it that way, I feel like my digital spaces give me a larger freedom of expression I can't really have offline.

[appleAlc]

I’ve shown off my personal site to a cousin or two but my family is pretty…oblivious, and I think I may like to keep it that way : 3
My friends know much more about my site and online presence, and I quite like being able to socialise. The internet is, at its most core functions, a system for communications.

[Memory]

Everything! Both family and friends, everyone knows everything!

I'm the same online as I am offline. I know that being online is a chance for others to show a different side of them, but I'm just me! I think that's why it's easier for me to share my online life with my offline relationships compared to others, because I truly have nothing to hide. Or like... There's simply no difference.

I even show my mom some of my fanfic comments hehe...

[appleAlc]

Everything! Both family and friends, everyone knows everything!

I'm the same online as I am offline. I know that being online is a chance for others to show a different side of them, but I'm just me! I think that's why it's easier for me to share my online life with my offline relationships compared to others, because I truly have nothing to hide. Or like... There's simply no difference.

I even show my mom some of my fanfic comments hehe...

I am in awhe awe of your courage and audacity.
I personally prefer the variety of the self I can be granted, but I can certainly understand such an approach to presentation

[Memory]

I am in awhe awe of your courage and audacity.
I personally prefer the variety of the self I can be granted, but I can certainly understand such an approach to presentation

To be fair, I've never ever thought about being anything other than myself. And that's not to say that I think others are being disingenuous with their online persona! Rather, it's never occurred to be that I can be anything that I want to be online! So I've just been me. I can appreciate why people are "different" or otherwise more selective with how they present themselves online, and I think in general it's good practice too. I just have a very open and accepting family especially, so I've never felt the need to hide anything I suppose.

(I'm trying really hard to come across as not making assumptions here! I'm autistic, and find using the correct words difficult, so I hope no one takes offence!)

Edit: I love the pun too 

[starbreaker]

My wife knows everything. Other people know what they choose to find. I generally don't advertise the fact that I have a website IRL, but if somebody punches my name into a search engine, finds my website at starbreaker.org, and tells me they've been to my website I don't pretend the site's operated by some guy who just happens to have the same name and bear an unfortunate resemblance to me.

I've had people at work ask me about my website, and I tell them straight out: it's mine, it's a personal website, and it's not appropriate to view it at work or on company-owned equipment. If they do so anyway that's on them. One time one of my bosses read part of a novel I published on my website and asked me why I'm writing pornography online. I just looked at her and asked her why she's viewing pornography on company-owned equipment.

[Lyonid]

Oh I am throwing my site and projects into everyone's faces. I am screaming at every close friend of mine to get a website, and I don't care about them getting frustrated with me because I know they love me! My parents, I don't really tell about it because their digital capabilities are minimal. I do show them my projects from time to time, though!

We should keep showing things we create to our peers. It's really important, and so much fun! I remember sharing a whole list of resources at a presentation in my university, and a whole lot of people approached me, asking me about reclaiming the web. Of course, those were mostly artists and computer scientists. I would love to find a way to share my online presence with as many people as I can because this may be the most accessible, and solid way to expand my digital neighborhood.

[zanarkand]

my two best friends know about and follow my tumblr and they're even on this board, but that's it. i don't use social media so tumblr and neocities are my only only "presence" and i would rather keep that separate from most people irl. being on instagram and twitter really led to some oversharing that bit my ass, so i've been enjoying a level of anonymity and just keeping my online and offline lives separate. i feel like my online presence is much more humble and real than when i would try to be cool or get a lot of attention, so i prefer it this way. the internet is my escape and i don't need my mom or most friends to see it.