Fellow of the American Psychological Association, Media Psychologist, and Author
Memoir Writing, Blogging, and Ghostwriting
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Weekly Doses of Pop-up Psych
We all make cringey mistakes and deserve to move on, rather than feel confused or regretful after an icky social situation. Each week, I will dissect a murky social, life cycle, or pop culture topic to help you understand, learn, and move on. As a former academic, I am a super-picky consumer of research (and you should be too) as well as the content I create and share, so those new solutions, data and/or additional resources have certainly met my approval.
To Post or Not to Post… Why you Should Stop Oversharing on Social Media Right Now
It’s the end of the day and you are relaxing with your feet up and scrolling through your socials: liking, hearting, commenting on, and sharing other people’s pics of their vacations, kids, puppies, and memes of empowerment. It feels deceptive because you might be physically alone, but are literally interacting on a world’s biggest live stage. You might even cringe a little at other people’s posts, wondering, did they intentionally insult their mother-in-law, shame their kids, or ridicule someone else’s kids?
Social media has certainly desensitized us as to what it does and doesn’t mean to overshare. Status updates are the equivalent of renting a billboard or a person standing in the middle of a crowd with a megaphone announcing his/her/their news. In a previous blog about social media presence when going through a legal situation, it’s better to seem boring than give evidence about yourself to the other side.
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Stop oversharing on social media because you could be compromising someone’s privacy
Privacy means something different to everybody. Just because you choose to overshare, doesn’t mean someone else necessarily needs to be tagged in your post. At minimum, ask for permission before you bring up a blast from the past and put someone in an awkward situation. Compromising an individual or group’s privacy could threaten their safety and livelihood as well as your relationships.
Stop oversharing on social media because the internet is forever
Think before posting because once the information is out there, it’s out there and can’t be taken back. Like a tattoo, not only is the internet permanent, it’s forever. A post or comment can be deleted, but someone could have taken a screenshot. The consequences of an online faux pas is much worse than that moment of gratification when you think you are being funny.
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Stop oversharing on social media because you will never know what you are losing
Sometimes we never know about something we might have lost, whereas in other instances, relationships are blatantly compromised, opportunities are lost, and attracts bad publicity to everyone involved. A post or comment could have negative consequences because once something is lost, it might never come back.
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Stop oversharing on social media because seeming boring is the best case scenario
It’s more uncool to overshare than seem boring because you are not putting much out there. Boring is better than saying something that could get you or someone else canceled, which jeopardizes physical and mental health.
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Moving Forward
Since less is definitely more, some posts may need to quietly come down under the radar. What posts should people remove that include you? Which posts should you remove from your profiles?
So why is there a need to overshare?
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Here might be some reasons to think before posting, liking, commenting, and sharing.
Stop oversharing on social media because people are judging you
How many times have you scrolled past someone’s post and completely rolled your eyes? We know who likes, shares, and comments on our content, but we don’t know who we might have offended. Unfortunately, there are no options for disliking and eye rolling on a post, so whoever we made cringe will always be a mystery. Unbeknownst to them, people make fools of themselves everyday. You don’t want to be one of them.
Hi Beautiful Readers and thank you for reading this! I'm Dr. Joanne Broder, Media Psychologist, Author, and Fellow of the American Psychological Association. Please consider me to help you write your memoir, blogs, speeches, e-books, as well as coach you on your dissertation or thesis. Click here so we can connect!