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Lemmings on Parade: The High Cost of Personal Branding
The highly curated life comes with a hefty price tag
I’m so glad I didn’t grow up in the age of social media.
My childhood memories are a mishmash of people, colors, and feelings. I like that it’s a little fuzzy in places. The blur of growing up still holds significant weight in the formation of my identity. It’s an internal narrative — forged by my sensations and not by a polished scrapbook.
Sometimes I imagine what it would have been like to grow up surrounded by smartphones. While my parents snapped photos of birthdays and significant milestones, I don’t have a backlog of every trip to the park or family dinner. Most of my childhood pictures would never make the mark of today’s highly curated feeds.
And I’m glad. Not just because I was a loud, slightly weird, and utterly unfashionable 80’s kid. But because I hate thinking what might have been lost in the name of capturing every moment.
Would I still view myself as a wild-haired, scraped knees, mismatched ball of energy? Or would my perceptions have been altered — toned down — based on the narrative my parents might have wanted to show others?
And at what age would I have taken over the responsibility of that narrative? When would I have been aware that every picture and caption was building expectations about who I am?
At what point would I have become a brand instead of a person?
As an entrepreneur, I know branding is essential for business. The effort to communicate the essence of a company is a worthwhile practice that helps establish its vision, values, and mission. Everything is perfectly crafted to form an identity — from colors and fonts, slogans and taglines, photos, and associations.
But these days, it’s not just businesses that are curating their image. Anyone with an online presence is expected to think about their personal brand.
Barf. Personal branding. I hate that phrase.
I loathe the idea that you must consider every part of your being to ensure it fits within some kind of pre-selected representation of yourself. Personal branding insists that your interests, loyalties, and…
