I QUIT SOCIAL MEDIA!

...for like five days.

I've been publicizing my life for over five years now. Compared to 2020-2022, I've posted a lot less but still pretty consistently. I might not have the biggest platform or get recognized outside of beer festivals, but the details of my day-to-day are all out there. I don't have a content strategy but how I've put my life on display has been calculated. I've shared Easter Eggs like Swift and I'm bread-crumbing like Hansel. I've shared enough...but also very little to what I'd consider really "knowing someone".

I've been making less content than I have in the past, posting less, been sharing fewer details but still hitting send on what I know gets attention in my stories to keep engagement. I'm guilty. I've been stuck at 11,770-ish following for almost two years now. I'm gaining and losing about 200 followers every month to even it out. As where I've said, the metrics aren't the reason that I've built the page...it sure is a nice pat on the back and motivator. American Blonde Ale was birthed as a way to find a community when I was a 21-year-old girl in a hopped-up world and had no real contacts to learn from or share with.

I didn't invent the online beer community with my page like I naively thought. However, I did find it and I've joined it. AmericanBlondeAle has gotten me so many places. It's the reason that I was connected to and offered my first industry job as a Sales Rep. It led me an events management job shortly after. It's networked me to the woman who ended up passing the Torch at my current role. Yes, pun intended. AmericanBlondeAle opened the doors to a place that I otherwise might not've been able to get to.

AmericanBlondeAle is a huge part of me. It's my young adulthood in a scrapbook. It's every concert and trip. It's Christmas Eve with Threes, and Other Half, and Great South Bay year after year. Honestly, I don't think that I would have as much documentation of my life if it didn't exist. There are countless trips or nights out or even weekends at home where there is no documentation besides a selfie with a can of Montauk or a video of me blabbing on the aroma of a freshly cracked Oozlefinch.

On Monday, around 9 AM, I was walking to my subway. I was listening to BROCKHAMPTON (one of my all-time favorite groups) and posted it to my story. But who really cares? I love music and I love to share it. But I have AirBuds for my four friends who care as much as I do. I have the phone numbers of anyone with whom I would've wanted to share that song with. Like my mother has said, every burp and toot does not need to be posted. And as I hate to admit it, she's right.

I loved the disconnect this past week from my personal life to the platforms. I had some really productive meetings, I've been working on a much larger philanthropic *thing*, played Burn over 116 times in a loop, and kept up my regular social schedule. I've booked a trip, met and rejected a man, and am currently packing to catch an afternoon Greyhound. Life is happening but behind the curtain. I haven't posted it. Uh, I guess I have now but still. I wasn't rushing to tell the world but rather updating the humans who have secured a place at my table. It felt safe and healthy to not send out my every movement like the Bat-Signal.

I've loved the purpose that my page has stood for. And I'm sure that I will love what it will become. I've created a corner of the internet in which I feel incredibly safe and able to get intentionally vulnerable. I'm proud of what I have networked, designed, and managed. However, I'm entering a phase where I would rather keep my cards closer and my day-to-day life for those who are lovely enough to be in its orbit.

I'm not sure being SO on display is my cup of tea OR my shot of whiskey anymore.

I'm not sure I want the whole internet to know the details or just those that I've allowed into my life to get that privilege to themselves.

But for now, I am here and taking it day by day. And always making those days hoppy, duh.