If you were on the internet in the 2010s, poking around on Tumblr or somewhere adjacent, you might’ve become aware of a trend where people achieved short, succinct, and interesting usernames through various means. Not to call anyone out specifically, but you’d see users like “toad” and “midnight.” As platforms like Instagram became more popular, snagging these names became increasingly difficult. After spending hours trying single-word names and being met with the red “user is taken, idiot” message, many eventually resorted to making up their own usernames. This led to a cool spin on single-word handles—names that sounded like real words but were creatively born from almost internet lingo pidgin languages. One of my best friends, Leah, had a range of usernames in that internet era: @nodal, @rug, @pexia, @lebia, @cybinade, etc. She is older than me, a junior when I was a little freshman. Uh-oh Leah, it’s true, I looked up to you.

This trend was a way of curating the online experience for yourself and for the people looking at your stuff. If you’ve seen *The Social Network*, this is how the internet self-persona evolves. That was a strange, particular moment in time when random friends from your algebra class were literally famous on the internet, mostly for having “spam” accounts that showcased their personality through images ideally in 1080x1080. It’s honestly fascinating if you think about the social implications that led to that era. I don’t even know how to explain how people gained traction, but I bet the username helped. Wink.
 
 
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