Tags
Boundaries, C. C. Cedras author, Dirty Dancing, Fergus, Oversharing, Personal space, Reality TV, Selfies
Share it
Yours. And mine.
As a blogger, one who searches for ways to engage with you on various levels and topics, I sometimes struggle with how much information is too much to share. I hope you’ll relate to me and what I’m doing, understand my values if not the details of whatever belief system I’ve built over my lifetime, but sharing deeply personal information is not easy for me. I also don’t believe that I owe everyone that insight.
Not everyone feels that way. In fact, each day I feel more and more like I’m in the minority.
Over the past couple of decades, the proliferation of reality “entertainment” has permeated so deeply into our culture that it seems the levels of exposure have reached heights I never would have dreamed possible. It’s no big thing now for TV viewers to see into every room – literal and virtual – of an entertainer’s (these are not ordinary people, no matter what the producers are trying to sell us) life and lifestyle. No detail is too intimate to share.
Selfies, and the online apps that allow people to share them non-stop, are not just ubiquitous, they are like the air people breathe.
Not only have the barriers – the boundaries – of what was once considered acceptable to the FCC been obliterated, but – thanks to social media, gossip bloggers and tabloids, among others – the consumers of this form of entertainment now have an expectation, a sense of entitlement, that this view into other people’s lives is their due. And it’s not limited to celebrities.
It’s too much! Too much I tell you!
Honestly? I don’t have the time in my day to keep up with the tsunami of minutiae that so many people are sharing on social media. I’ve got a life, dammit. I’ve got a book to write! I have to take photos and videos of Fergus. This all takes time.
Gratuitous pic of Fergus after his bath this week
Maybe it’s a generational thing with me. Growing up I was conditioned to keep personal stuff personal and that it was unconscionably impolite to ask other people personal questions. Time and wear and tear have softened up those rules, but I still feel each person is entitled to whatever degree of privacy makes them comfortable.
So, I’ll maintain my boundaries – here and elsewhere. And, I’ll respect yours.
*taps mic* Hello? Is there anyone out there who feels as I do?
C C Cedras
K R Brorman
S A Young
11 Comments
January 26, 2017 at 1:44 pm
I think it even goes beyond TMI about every itch and scratch, but an expectation that every thought and belief should be more than accepted but applauded.
I suspect the guiltiest of excessive sharing will call us judgemental old ladies. “Hey kids, get your naked bits off my lawn!”
January 26, 2017 at 1:48 pm
LOL, yes, I’m a curmudgeon about this stuff.
I’d say the entitlement element came from the parenting trend (after my childhood) of building self-esteem by telling kids they were special and giving them ribbons and trophies for showing up, but it isn’t just GenX and Millennials who expect applause for every little thing. Who do we blame?!
January 26, 2017 at 2:45 pm
I come from good old English stock – stiff upper lip and all that stuff – and I have to admit that the amount of personal information people feel free to divulge on reality TV (not to mention their bad behaviour) absolutely horrifies me. It literally makes me cringe. I don’t think I am a prude by any stretch of the imagination but – no – can’t deal with it at all. There is so much out there about other people that I really don’t need (or want) to know . . .
January 26, 2017 at 3:17 pm
Really, there are no words. 😳
January 26, 2017 at 2:52 pm
In my generation privacy provided the lack of ammunition on which to be judged 🙂 But dear Lord, let’s not even get started on entitlement 🙂
January 26, 2017 at 3:16 pm
I love that wording! I’m stealing it! 🤗
January 26, 2017 at 3:09 pm
I’m with ya sister! As for whom (or what) to blame, I can’t say. The roots, no doubt, go back generations and point to seemingly innocuous I’m pretty sure that there will soon be college classes (for humanities credit no doubt) taught on the roots of the phenomenon. If, that is, they aren’t being taught to those special snowflakes already 😀
January 26, 2017 at 7:57 pm
I am with you all the way.
January 27, 2017 at 5:05 am
I totally agree with you, so no, you are not alone! (Unless you want to be – and that’s OK! 😀 )
I also grew up being a very private person; partly how we were brought up in the UK back then, and partly, I just am. I rarely share personal things even with my best mate, and certainly not online. The way the entertainment industry these days gives you every bit of ‘private’ info is just gross. I choose not to watch reality shows.
January 27, 2017 at 7:30 am
Then come sit by me! Unless you’d rather sit in the chair, and that’s perfectly fine. 🤣
January 27, 2017 at 8:16 am
haha 🙂