Blank is fine.

I don’t think anything really changed there — those of us who think their opinions are worth other people hearing about (and I’m generally in that camp) have been around since time immemorial, and I doubt we’re growing as a percentage.

It’s just that social media has provided us a big new platform, much more visible than Usenet or whatever. I think generally companies don’t care what you write online as long as it won’t come back to bite the company.

There is a difference between being heard and having your real name and a photo of your face attached to what you said like in some cases on Twitter.

I was wondering if social media has become so ingrained into the lives of the younger generations (and maybe even the elderly) that it’s effectively as much a part of their public identity as their choice of clothes and academic/career accomplishments.

No — I know lots of young people who hate all public forms of social media, and worry constantly about having any sort of visible opinions — and these are people with socially-liberal political views. It really is just a personal preference, and outside of social media manager positions, employers don’t care.