Except for Twitter, I am not someone that posts often on social media. I barely post on Instagram or Facebook though I like to check in to see what friends and family are doing. I’ve talked about how social media has affected me and my break from it, but I have been wondering about the personal aspect of it. Obviously social media is personal, but I want to know if there is such a thing as something being too personal? Is it possible in this age of social media to ever been too personal again?
Let me back up. When I was younger, there were certain topics that my friends and I wouldn’t talk about in front of others because it was too personal. Our sex lives or body functions (even our periods) or a familial issues always seemed to be too personal and there was no reason for it. We’d have a small group of people with whom we could open up about anything but never in a general fashion.
But now, in 2020, that is all gone. Kids and people of all ages are super active on social media and continue to share all aspects of their lives. From very personal moments in their lives that aren’t the happiest to the moments that aren’t so happy. For some people, social media if their livelihood. So I wonder if there is such a thing as anything being too personal when we let the world in on every little moment.
Obviously there are conversations going on that what you see on social media is fake and a very specific image is being projected. There are also conversations about how these images impact young people, especially girls, to have standards about their bodies that aren’t really real. But this post is solely about the information that we share about our personal lives and if we even should share these things with the public.
I think this is why I find celebrities who are incredibly private so fascinating. They have the means to make sure that people don’t find out about their lives but it’s also mind blowing to me that they are people in the public eye but they’re…not. I think of Peter Dinklage and his wife or Ryan Gosling and Eva Mendes among many others. We know that they’re married and have kids but not much else (we don’t even know Dinklage’s kids names). If such high profile celebrities can keep their lives private but still go about their day, we should be able to as well.
I’m not sure if this post makes any sense but this has been what I’ve been thinking about a lot lately. Considering that that I don’t share much about my life, I am trying to keep certain parts of my life to myself. However, and this is a big however, I do often feel like I’m lagging behind on what others are going. Fear Of Missing Out (FOMO) if you will. Again, this post is just here for me to muse about my thoughts about this and not for another other reason.
What do y’all think? Do you think it’s possible to be too open and share too many personal aspects of our lives? Or have we given up our privacy to some degree forever?
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