Sharing on Social Media

We all live in the age of social media. These days we share things online and with the rest of the world that we normally would not have done in the past. We document our lives in a way that we never have in the past. 

Image by Marie from Pixabay

I was watching a show that talked about social media and there were questions of why people share the way that they do online. Some justified it as a form of journaling or documenting our lives. Some share that it is a way of self-promotion for one’s job, business or any other career. In these times where people can monetize their lives online, that is not that much of a surprise.

As a blogger, I found that sharing things online was not only a form of self-expression, but a way of learning about other people as well. With everyone sharing their lives and people being from different countries and cultures, it is an eye-opening experience to learn how other people have lives that are different from my own. To me it is a reminder that it is such a big world out there and there is so much that I have yet to learn about. 

I think that we can’t dismiss people for sharing a lot on social media. Apart from learning from other people as we share our similarities and differences, one thing we have to understand is now that we have been years into this social media life, people have already learned the art of sharing without oversharing. People have learned how to post a lot of things and yet people still do not know that much about their personal lives. These are people who are careful about choosing what they share and how they share it. They still keep in touch through their regular and maybe frequent posts, but at the same time they are still able to keep a lot to themselves. I admire people who are able to do that and I have been trying to do the same.

Here are some things that I have learned and tried doing through the years:

Posting Late – You can still share what you eat, where you’ve been and what you’ve experienced but you post it hours or days or maybe even weeks later. 

Responsible Tagging – Do not post pictures of friends and family unless they have given you permission to do so. Do not tag them unless they asked you to. Update your settings so that people cannot tag you in photos without your permission. We all have our own personal levels of privacy so we have to respect that.

No Details – You can post from home, or post from work if you want but do not post too much details. There are things that you have to keep to yourself for your own safety and your home and work locations are part of that. 

Curate – I know some people think that people are being too fussy on social media when they curate their posts, thinking that means that person is being fake online (and I have to admit, there are some who actually are). But curating your posts could also help to ensure that you still keep a certain amount of privacy despite your regular posts. Curating helps you to see what kind of person your present yourself as online and what kind of information you are sharing to complete strangers if your account is public. I see nothing wrong with it and I do that myself sometimes because there are moments when you think there is nothing wrong with a certain post but when you look back you realize there is a need to take it down for privacy purposes.  

Those are just some of the ways that I try to keep my privacy online despite the fact that I have a podcast and public accounts on social media. If anyone out there has more tips, I would love to hear about them!

Since this post is about how we want people to get to know us online, I am ending this post with this episode of the Fandesals Podcast where we share a bit more about ourselves so that our listeners/viewers can get to know us better. If you like it, please subscribe to our channel!