This is a public announcement to anyone who uses social media as their personal diary. Just know that your friends and followers don't actually care about your rant of the day. Chances are, we are going to scroll past it if it's over two lines long.
When social media first came into prominence, it was typical to share as much as you could about your personal life. This was because the majority of your friends and followers were your family and close friends that you've actually met. Nowadays, we follow and befriend whoever seems appealing online. We often follow people because we can see that someone we may know follows them.
Think about your friends list. Do you know everyone personally? If you have met them, do you still talk to them? I can attest that I follow people that I've never met and I still follow people who I haven't spoken to in years.
When I say oversharing, I mean the extremely long, pointless posts about your day. If it's longer than two lines of text, I am certainly not wasting my time to read your post. Why should I care? Trust me, your friends don't care that your stapler was missing from your desk at work, your printer broke, or that you're feeling under the weather.
Instead, use the time that you spent typing that long post and try to fix your broken printer. Take some Tylenol while you're at it, too.
Not only are you giving the opportunity for people to talk about what you're doing and criticize you, but you're also sharing an abundance of information that can become unsafe. Apps such as Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook can track your location, even if you don't have the app open.
Third-party sources track your recent searches and clicks as well. This is why you may see an ad about something you were just thinking about. Maybe they're even listening to you without your consent.
My advice to people who overshare on social media: if you really feel the need to share it with somebody, call your mom instead of plastering it online for the entire world to see. Think about what you're sharing. Would you want your boss to see that?
