Part of the storyline: The Byline Returns

Break Free or Shadow Integrate

For years I mistook my social-media identities for who I was, and kept polishing them. This week I shed that skin — bracing for fear, and finding only the absence of a hum I'd stopped hearing.

By Abraham Hdru ·6 June 2026

Today, I have shed my skin and evolved. I think my first social media account was ICQ, then some copy version of Facebook, then Facebook, then Instagram, then LinkedIn, and some other BS in between.

Till recently, I thought my social media identities are who I am. What I post is what people think of me; hence it was always important to polish that identity.

Yet I realized there is no shadow integration needed — since Social Media is Social Media, and I am I am. Hence I will stop using those accounts for the meantime and get to know myself again, haha.

What I expected to feel, and didn’t.

I expected fear. I got the absence of a low hum that had been on so long I had stopped hearing it.

It is very quiet now. I keep checking to see if something is wrong.

Ps — the freedom fighter.

Discuss under your real name

The real-name comment layer opens in Phase 1. A narrative belongs to its teller — so when comments arrive, you’ll sign yours. Until then, replies come by email.