Privacy is sexy!

My thoughts on why oversharing is a little overdone

The internet changes people, the way they think the way they view the world and the way they view themselves. Now more often than not you know what your relatives and friends are up to everyday.. great! I know many people who have their friends locations on 24/7. I know people who count others snapscores hour by hour. But what kind of effect does this direct look into peoples daily lives have on their mental state?

We all want to feel included even if were not. We want a sense of belonging into what we see others enjoying and being a part of. Especially impressionable kids who are just figuring out the ways of the world. But now its getting to be a little.. much? Let me give you an example. I have unfollowed a lot of people from highschool. I “graduated” in 2020 which was as we know a time for a lot of reflection and solitude. I took this as an oppurtunity to really just baricade myself, at the time I viewed it as a way to start over. I figured if no one could go anywhere cool or do anything fun there was no point in me trying to keep up with the faces of people I was passing in the hallways each day without ever saying a word to. But I didn’t stop there, I unfollowed basically everyone friends included. I had a bit of a falling out at the very end of my highschool days and the world just so happened to give me an excuse to never see them again. So I just left everything and everyone in the past and headed off to college, now 5 years later I still have no clue where any of them ended up.

Now a couple of days ago I started talking to an old friend from those highschool days, and they went on and on about how they’d seen those people from highschool looking at my social media pages. Looking for info on what I had been up to and getting discouraged they couldn’t find anything. Now some may take this as a form of flattery or ego boost and I can admit I got a taste of gratification from it but mostly I thought about following them again. After all it’d been 5 years and I forgot what made us stop talking to eachother in the first place. I’m not one to hold grudges. So I followed them. And in about 30 seconds those 5 years of total disconnect were wiped, I could see everything they were doing. Most of them had stayed in the same city, some branched out some graduated from one college or another. But nevertheless I knew everything. It flooded my mind with memories and made me think of how different a person I was in highschool compared to now. I didn’t even need to reach out to see how they were doing, I could see it all.

Now I dont post very much and im not very active on social media, i’ve always been more of an observer. But it got me thinking on how this social acceptance of oversharing on the internet has realy almost gotten out of hand. People can have a direct look into your life at any time of the day if they wanted. I believe a little more mystery is very much needed with the dangerous parts of the internet and general drama in a single comment section. I mean, what do people really have conversations about if they know everything you are doing all the time? There is desire in the unknown. Everyone wants to be cool and mysterious now, they want to be figured out and seen by people they know. But admired and idolized by strangers on the internet.

On a similar yet different branch is the ‘GRWM’ videos I have been seeing on social media. I don’t know when the normality of starting your video in your underwear was normalized but it seems like everyone has accepted it. Little things like this is what I believe we could be a touch more in-tune with. We know you put your clothes on after your underwear.. you dont need to show us. Privacy is something we should all be a bit more appreciative of.

I also think there a lot of ways people view the internet and its windows into peoples daily lives, a lot of digital creators make their paychecks off sharing their day to days. Which is totally fine if you are open to the internets endless opinions on you. Others have erased their traces on social media completely, and then get major FOMO of internet presence and are made well aware of the inside jokes they no longer share with everyone who is on it. Now there can be a very good grey area and I belive lots of people have figured that area out. Where you can be observant and consume media at a healthy rate, but leave your personal business out of it. Because believe it or not, your boss and people that are looking to hire you do in-fact check your sociak media pages.

Now is this all hypocrytical since im posting my un-asked for opinions on the internet about people posting their opinions on the internet? Maybe. But if not anything, at least consider this when sharing your every day online.