there’s a lot of overlap for me with other dichotomies, and i’m becoming increasingly wary of it as a relegated sphere of "private" or “personal” life, with opposing poles of "public" and "professional".
irl i go by a different name and maintain a severed identity (even with friends/family). i largely evaluate this positively bc it keeps a disgusting version of myself at arms length. i don’t enjoy occupying my irl modality, but given the people and institutions i must interact with it’s good for now