How do we know who anyone is even in real life? One can just as easily wear a mask or get catfished IRL as online. We rely on markers, tells that are just different digitally than they are IRL. At least at first.

But because there is always a human being on the other side of the mask (bots have easy tells,) humanity peeks through eventually. And in some cases, I’ve met digital people IRL after a considerable amount of time on line and I’ve never been surprised by who they really are IRL. I’m almost sure they have not been surprised by who I am (I mean, like 58% more charming IRL, but that’s a given ;) )

I think part of formula is to embrace the IRL and digital identities as part of the whole. Most of us now are both.