Self-Disclosure

   In this age, everyone is somehow intertwined into the web. We use social media as a key communication tool. I do believe we put too much of our life online. Twitter, for example, has an average of 6,000 tweets published per second. That calculates to 500 million tweets sent per day. Most tweets I view on a single dashboard consist of personal information and comments about the user's current life. I often find myself questioning why people share all of this private information on a public website. I think it's odd to let a huge audience know details about one's life. I see people venting about interpersonal relationships a lot, as well as other life problems. Once you put something on the internet, you can't take it off. It stays there forever. I have learned that putting so much detail of one's life allows others to poke their noses in your business. Also, it can effect your future more than one knows. Employers are one reason to be careful what post. Family is another. Both could have an easy access to one's social media. Your past posts could haunt you forever.

   I don't share much on social media. I usually keep to myself and don't post much but I do scroll through a few apps throughout the day. I think what I do have on my social media account, Instagram, is already enough to share with the world. It's weird to think about it, but I don't even know who half my "followers" are personally. I have never met them or seen them in my life. I like to limit what I see though, I only follow who I know and have met. I am particular about what I share with the world, considering my family follows me and my account setting is public. I was not always this quiet on the big social M. I learned to be like this the hard way. In high school, I used to have a Twitter and I posted a little too much insight in my life. My parents ended up finding my account and weren't too happy with what they found. I soon lost interest in posting all the time. Now, I always overthink what I'm about to share... I think about how my family could be sitting on the other side of the phone...

   In the article, "Are we sharing too much online?" by Dean Obeidallah, we learn about self-disclosure taking a new route. A recent victim is known to log onto an anonymous questionnaire site to talk about her scary life changing event. I believe a lot of people typically self-disclose online rather than in person because it tends to be easier to write things out. Some prefer to be alone but communicate through online so they don't have to confront face-to-face. I like to keep my problems off line. I would rather talk face-to-face than online. But that's just me! Everyone has a unique way of coping with certain events and living life. 

SOURCES: Obeidallah, Dean. "Are We Sharing Too Much Online?" CNN. Cable News Network, 16 Aug. 2013. Web. 15 Jan. 2017. 

"Twitter Usage Statistics." Twitter Usage Statistics - Internet Live Stats. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Jan. 2017.

"Cat GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY." GIPHY. N.p., 18 Feb. 2014. Web. 18 Jan. 2017. 

Huillet, Michelle. Communicating Online. N.p.: McGraw Hill, n.d. Print.

"50 Great Blogging Tips." Bergh Consulting. N.p., 31 May 2015. Web. 17 Jan. 2017.