@160over90intern ever heard of tmi? #getalife
December 8, 2010 • 7:22 pm • POSTED BY nbenson
Being the young, fairly cool and particularly social person that I am, I enjoy reading scandalous and “LOL-able” Facebook status updates, tweets and blog posts. For example, if you have a weird habit, awkward story, funny memory, inappropriate thought, or anything else that will make me laugh while simultaneously feeling relieved that I am not you, I definitely want to hear about it. Social media feeds act as today’s source of entertainment, news, gossip and otherwise conversational topics for those of us who have chosen to log in. I’m curious, though, if there is a universal line to (not) be crossed for what we share on the internet.
As the newest intern addition to the 160over90 team, I remain cautious in giving away too much information about myself. For now. (Or at least until the holiday party next week.) While I recognize and practice the importance of revealing enough personality and charisma to make a positive impression, I also understand that there exists a line (blurrier for some than others) of privacy and proper; especially in the confines of an office. The same, however, goes for social media: How much is too much?
Social media encourages us to tell the world, and the world’s friends, and the cousins of the world’s friends, what we are doing and where we are doing it at the exact moment it is happening. Through numerous social media outlets, we have the opportunity to inform the public of our thoughts and opinions on practically anything and everything, appropriate or inappropriate. This could range from our love for beets (cue subtle client shout-out) to how loud the crash was when our boss slipped in the hallway this morning (subtle shout-out to Gina) to where we ate dinner last night (Chickie’s and Pete’s, if you wanted to know). There are both personal and corporate privacy issues surrounding social media yet we (I) are (am) still drawn most to the ridiculous updates from our craziest/rudest/funniest/most outlandish friends. And friends of friends. And friends of friends of friends.
I began to consider all of this after watching 60 Minutes’ interview with Mark Zuckerberg, the creator and cleverly coined “Toddler CEO” of Facebook, a couple nights ago. Correspondent Leslie Stahl discussed that, aside from the most obvious concern that is the selling of user information to advertisers, the new Facebook layout actually encourages us to reveal even more about ourselves; it’s a double-edged sword to say the least. Yet, I continue to see newer and newer information-spilling applications added to the embarrassingly-addicting, status-updating, picture-stalking, stranger-friending, ultimate-procrastinating website. So, seriously, how much sharing is too much sharing when we’re provoked to share it all?
As previously mentioned, this line is blurry. Not the kind of blurry that I imagine goes down at office holiday parties, but for real blurred. It’s a complicated topic to navigate, but I think that we, as social media (ab)users, must ultimately own our individual standards and expectations for giving too much of ourselves away. And as one of the newer team members here, not to mention an intern, I think I’ll keep my tweets and status updates on the more graceful side.