Horcruxes

I feel increasingly scattered, as though I have created numerous little electronic horcruxes and scattered them all over the Internet. I have numerous e-mail addresses, each for a different purpose. I have profiles on so many sites that I cannot remember them all, for networking, socializing, buying things, selling things, commenting on news, commenting on gossip, commenting on books or movies... which leads to that strange sense of disconnect when I realize that I have lost track of some portion of myself. Now, where exactly did I leave that little piece of me? And what's the user name? The password? Nope, wrong password. What was the challenge question again? Oh - I wonder if I abbreviated that. Nope - denied! I hope I don't fail too many times in my attempted logins and lock myself out of this account...

I signed up for Facebook recently, after a friend told me that many of the cool kids I couldn't find on MySpace were over on Facebook. So now I'm divided - because I want to keep up with people in both places. And LinkedIn, let's not forget that. I can tie some things together and create some connections between these bits of myself (I can display GoodReads stuff on Facebook and here, for example), but not all (and whether I would want it all tied together is another question - do I really want people who remember me from elementary school to read my blog? I'm not sure). I have to try to remember to bookmark different sites so I don't forget them, only to find, after a period of months, that someone tried to reach me there weeks ago without a response from me (have I mentioned how susceptible I can be to guilt?).

I could rant at length on other topics - it has been one of those days - but I would rather have a beer.