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How To Over-Share Every Detail Of Your Life Online

posted by Rick Webb
Rick Webb
Rick Webb

Co-founder, COO : New York

topics: Media Planning, Measurement and Analytics, Installations, Search, and Barbarian

on February 12, 2010 at 06:06 PM

http://tbg.cm/fzEK5A
How To Over-Share Every Detail Of Your Life Online: typepad/alleyinsider/silicon_alley_insider (Silicon Alley Insider) :p. What always interests me about “the oldz,” when they go on and on about over sharing on the internet and how egotistical the kids are, is that not once, ever, do the olds ever see the so-obvious-it-goes-without-saying side of things that drives many (not all, but many) “kids” to do this.

I can’t recall once ever seeing a story explaining the moral and political positive side of living publicly. That is, I’ve never once seen someone try and actually write out and explain why this might be a good thing – and why many people who do it believe it to be a good thing. I’ve been meaning to do it for years, but… well, I am lazy, I guess.

The short version: living in public makes you less likely to be a hypocrite. It’s the glass houses argument turned on its head. Yes. I live in a glass house. Here I am, flaws and all. Away with this 1940’s era sentiment of shame and closets and hidden lives and hypocrisy and dark secrets. Get it all out in the open, accept everyone for who they actually are, because THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH THESE THINGS ALL TEH OLDZ ARE SO ASHAMED OF THAT THEY INSIST ON KEEPING HIDDEN.

Every time this topic comes up, it’s about “nobody cares what you had for lunch.” I’d turn that around and say “Why be so ashamed to tell anyone anything about yourself?” Where is the moral high ground in thinking “no one cares about my life?” Why on earth is that some noble sentiment?

Originally posted at http://rickwebb.tumblr.com/post/386162673

2 comments

Remember how living your life online was a way to earn a paycheck? It was so novel back then. You had JenniCam, you had Justin Hall. Pretty much anything went back then--everything you did was guaranteed to break some social convention. None of that really a big deal nowadays. But it is funny how something like Chatroulette evokes memories of the early days of the Web.

On the other hand, not sharing is a-ok. The Oldz are just fine keeping stuff to themselves. I liked that piece from Schneier[1], his response to Eric Schmidt's belittling of privacy:

"We do nothing wrong when we make love or go to the bathroom. We are not deliberately hiding anything when we seek out private places for reflection or conversation. We keep private journals, sing in the privacy of the shower, and write letters to secret lovers and then burn them. Privacy is a basic human need."

I also think as a kid you've got less of a grasp on consequence which makes oversharing particularly easy. You've got your 30s and 40s to spend on removing the things online you're now embarrassed by and/or preventing gainful employment.

PS: Lunch was some awesome tuna fish + olive oil they put in a can! Spanish I think.

1: http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/12/my_reaction_to.html
@Gavin -

Totally. I think both viewpoints are valid. I live somewhere in the middle, though definitely leaning toward oversharing. What interests me about the whole debate is how un-explored the oversharing ethos is. How it's assumed it's all based in ego. I truly know and believe that many people do it for other reasons. Those reasons interest me.