A wonderful aspect of social media is that they force people to define themselves knowing that the definition they construct will be put on display. Before the dawn of all the social tools we use now, people had been confronted with this task only when forming a professional identity for a resume.

When you first completed a social profile, you carefully selected what to include and what not to disclose. You chose whether to use first- or third-person narrative. You chose whether the you on Facebook would be the same as the you on Twitter. You probably didn’t realize along your decision path to social self-definition how meaningful a task this was. Or maybe you did.

Most of us want to be the kind of person that other people want to know more about. A social profile tells viewers your story and you have only one chance to make a captivating first impression. Think about whether your Twitter profile, for instance, makes you unquestionably worthy of a follow from the follower audience you hope to attract.

Onlookers aside, you also took the time to carefully craft your social profiles because your identity is important to you. You probably make edits to your profiles time after time, feeling a sense progress in your identity development after each update.

Now consider each tweet, each post and each comment you make and how they build upon the way you’ve presented yourself in your profiles.

You’ve defined yourself. Publicly. Happy with it?