4728

What does 4,728 mean to you?

Day to day, it doesn’t mean much to me. Just a passing number. But if I think a little more, it sinks in. If 4,278 people were following me home, that would feel creepy.

Yet every day I invite these people into my public private life. Where I eat, who I see, what my apartment looks like, where I shop, how I feel.

I write to them some days, like they’ve been waiting for my updates. I collect memories for them to participate in.

I recognise the small percentage that choose to engage with me. My friends, my family, and people I’ve met.

But what about the rest? Are they watching? Are they liking? Are these the people who look at, but don’t acknowledge me on the street?

I have my moments where I decide to cull the list. People who I’ve never met, who I haven’t spoken to in years, people who I know I wouldn’t talk to if I bumped into them on the street.

And at the same time, I follow more. People I’m curious about. People I’m inspired by. People who remind me of the person I do and don’t want to be – weird, the latter.

People from my past, people from present, people who I hope will be in my my public private future.

Are they already in that list? I wonder what number of 4,728 they’ll be.