Among Portugal’s few literary giants, Alberto Caeiro, Álvaro de Campos, Ricardo Reisall and Fernando Pessoa are mentioned. Yet, all the preceding three were pseudonyms of the last one. As if these are not three too many, he created some seventy-five others. These dreamed-up personalities of one of the 20th century’s greatest poets in the Portuguese language, every so often, were used to hold unpopular or extreme views.

Pessoa insists that he used pseudonyms to express himself fully in a different style. It could also be just that he wanted to say things that he did not wish to under his name. The anecdote raises a serious question today. All of us have become private broadcasters, able to make up a persona at will and “share” about some truly unpopular or even dangerous things that could have consequences in the real world. It is all thanks to social media.

It is not just the unsightly things on digital social platforms but even the accolades, which can turn us into attention-seeking hedonists. In an interview, Jack Dorsey of Twitter once said that if he is allowed to undo a feature from his brainchild, it is his regrettable “like’’ button. It is reminiscent of the Athenian lawmaker Draco, a devoted theatregoer, who received too much applause, and died from it as a result. While he was sitting in a theatre, other spectators hailed him by clapping wildly and throwing their cloaks and caps in tribute, despite his passing of many harsh laws – a track record that gave us the word “draconian.” So many garments landed on him that he was enveloped and smothered to death. Of course, like most historical accounts from millennia ago, this should be taken with a grain of salt.

There is little to be impressed about when it comes to exploiting media spaces for personal or political gain. The public media has long been accused of being pro-government while the age of social media, where every citizen can be a publisher, inaugurated social division. But here and there, as inspiration, are a few that have been iron-willed, who brought their broadcasters, or programme genres to a reputed position. They engaged their audiences without using pseudonyms or engaging in sensationalist material designed to capture attention but not engage intelligently.