Photo courtesy of jasonstaten.
Today's topic: oversharing. I will admit I'm a repeat offender. I can't count the number of times I've been enjoying a meal with a new acquaintance and inexplicably started sharing personal information in excessive detail. Before I know it, the words are just rushing out of my mouth like water from a broken dam, and there is literally nothing I can do to hold them back. Usually my oversharing is forgiven; occasionally I'm delighted to find it matched, or even one-uped, by the person across the table; and, yes, every now and then, it's met with visible discomfort and the notable lack of a follow-up get together, but overall, it's a relatively harmless vice.
Having slightly more potential for harm, however, is the habit of oversharing online. It's no secret that we at Social Citizens are all for being active online. We love to see people blogging, tweeting and posting videos about their thoughts on issues, brands, and experiences, but is there a point where all that social networking is TMI?
When I helped my dad sign up for Twitter over Christmas break, we had an exchange which demonstrates what I think is a common generational difference. He was a little bit horrified by the public nature of everything he was being asked to post on Twitter. He was not so sure about sharing his location, his photo, nearly anything he was doing or even his real name. ("Kristin, you have heard of identity theft, yes?")
According to the recent Pew study on Millennials, we're actually more wary of others than previous generations. Perhaps our penchant for transparency and our comfort online overcome this stated mistrust and lead us to post too much information about ourselves online because I hadn't really given much thought to the dangers of talking about myself in such a public way, and based on some of my friends' online activity, apparently neither have they. Whether it's airing private grievances, posting pictures I wish I'd never seen or just making your daily routine public, oversharing online can lead to discomfort and danger.
Foursquare is a fun application encouraging people to check out new places in their city, but we might need to think twice about how we use this and other location-based applications. Perhaps in an effort to rack up badges, some users have taken to checking in literally everywhere they go. (I am of the opinion that if someone cannot join you there, it's not kosher to check in.) In addition to annoying their twitter followers, these overzealous check-ins are also establishing their itineraries by chronicling when they get to work, when they go out for lunch, back to work, at the Dupont Circle metro (where they're clearly starting their commute) at the Clarendon metro (where they're clearly ending their commute) and at their apartment building. You do that every day for two weeks and as PleaseRobMe.com tries to demonstrate, you are giving opportunistic evildoers a leg up.
A recent survey indicated that the majority of Americans think it's wrong to friend your boss on Facebook. Likewise, an even higher percentage of bosses (62%) think being friends with their employees online is weird. I tend to disagree, but I'll concede that I have a particularly social media-friendly office environment. But the survey results touch on a common concern about sharing too much via social networks with coworkers, as well as potential employers, clients, students, exes or parents.
This concern is complicated by the fact that many people don't even realize who they are sharing all their information with through Facebook. Every now and then, there's an uproar about Facebook, and the changes to its privacy settings - who owns your information, who can see your information and whether you can really remove your information might surprise you. Nick O'Neill has a helpful list of privacy settings every Facebook user should know, or if you prefer, you can watch the video version.
Where do you draw the line on talking about yourself online? And how do you take advantage of the utility and fun of social networks without putting yourself at risk?