Social Networking Boundaries
Social networking has a way of really sucking you in and causing you to share – sometimes too much and often with complete strangers.
The following tweet by Penelope Trunk has been discussed to death already, so I won’t get into the details of why she did it (she did provide an explanation) or of what exactly people thought about what they perceived as her over-sharing.
I will however say this: in a way, blogging and tweeting for my clients is easy. These are corporate accounts and business-related materials which make it very easy to focus. When I provide social media services to clients, I know exactly what’s expected of me and I act accordingly.
Every company wants to have a blog and a Twitter account with a strong, personal voice – no one wants “dry” or “formal” – but no client will ever expect me to share personal stuff on their accounts.
When it comes to my own blog and Twitter accounts, things are different. There’s this expectation from bloggers to do deeply sharing on their blogs – it’s after all fascinating to read about someone else’s drama – but of course when you do share, there’s backlash, especially against “mommy bloggers” who are perceived as “using” their kids to get online exposure and following.
My solution is far from perfect, because I choose to share very little, which makes my personal spaces on the Internet a little reserved, maybe even dry. But it works for me. It’s important to remember though that what feels like over sharing to one person may feel perfectly OK to another. We need to respect each other’s choices when it comes to how much we are willing to share online.
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Mrs. Micah responds:
Posted: November 30th, 2009 at 11:03 am →
I was so surprised by that particular tweet that I followed up…in this case, I think it was something for which 140 characters wasn’t sufficient. Her article was fantastic and addressed a lot of the emotions that we women feel about pregnancy and the possibility of pregnancy. I thought it was entirely appropriate for a blog post (for her anyway) but 140 characters can’t convey that whole back story.
For me, I definitely overshare sometimes, but I try to put it in a form that gives context, if possible. Like when I shared about a condom break & my worries about pregnancy, I didn’t write short FB or Twitter updates because I knew they wouldn’t be able to express what I was really feeling in that case.
However, I don’t expect other people to share as much as I do or not to share more than I do. It’s all comfort level with a dash of discretion.
Vered DeLeeuw responds:
Posted: November 30th, 2009 at 11:24 am →
I haven’t thought about it, but it’s true: there’s a difference between sharing on Twitter, where you can’t really provide background or explain, and sharing on a blog.
Dot responds:
Posted: November 30th, 2009 at 11:55 am →
My favorite example of the tendency to overshare on Twitter is comedian Bobby Lee’s tweet, “Having sex.”
Vered DeLeeuw responds:
Posted: November 30th, 2009 at 3:59 pm →
Yup, that would be an excellent example! There was also a guy who tweeted a few months ago “sitting on the toilet.” Way, WAY TMI.
Twitter: Where Do You Draw The Line of Privacy? responds:
Posted: December 21st, 2009 at 7:03 am →
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