I recently found this on my favorite local, Boston-based blog, and it got me starting to think. Everyone overshares now. Maybe not to the extent of the crazy guy who posted his own death announcement, but look at our Facebook accounts. Email addresses. Cell phone numbers. Favorite colors, books, relationship statuses. Everyone knows I love to talk and have some hefty opinions on issues that many in my parents' generation consider "private matters," (cue my mother's hushed tone of voice). Abortion, contraception, preference of cell phone providers.
(Sidenote: midnight blue, Confessions of a Shopaholic, in a relationship [happily], pro-choice, I'm on it and T-Mobile -- for the record.)
My mother never shares such information for fear of insulting someone else. Or being judged. She plays nice and acts nice, even if she agrees to disagree. Also for the record, she never actually agrees to disagree, she'll still think you're an idiot, and just not say so. I on the other hand, will say so. This generation of young adults are a bit spunkier than that of the 1950s and 60s.
But it's just not about being opinionated, now is it? It's about sharing it all online, on the internet, for everyone and anyone to see or read. Social networking sites. Blogs. MySpace. Flickr accoutns. It's a bit ironic posting of all things, a blog post (that will be filtered through to my own Facebook account so my friends, friendimies, co-workers, and people I downright don't like [why are we Facebook friends anyway?!] can read it) on this topic. The huge case in point that glares out in my mind is the current trend of online PostSecret sharing. There are entire blogging communities where people simply share their secrets -- and there's intense stuff. Stuff I'd need some serious Zoloft just to read in one sitting. Molestation secrets. Rape secrets. Pregnancy secrets. Cheating secrets. This isn't lofty, 'I like so and so and we slept together,' stuff but some heavy information just floating around in the world of the internet. Do these secret writers know that some bored girl at work in Boston is reading their secrets? And hotlinking their secrets to a blog? Do they even care? And why is it so acceptable for everyone to anonymously post all this (sometimes horrific) stuff that they've done? And moreso, is it okay that anything that's written is totally okay if it's untraceable to the everyday person and has no known person behind it?
Maybe my mom was on the right track of keeping stuff to herself.
-M
