Reader response Draft 1

The Perils of Over-sharing in Social Networks

 

In the article “The Perils of Over-sharing in Social Networks”, Emm (2014) talks about the

ever increasing danger of using the internet.  As ever-bigger routine activities have to rely

on the Internet today, people begin to feel apprehensive for the authorities and the large

companies to spy on their personal lives. However, the author believes that the really dangers

are hidden behind the numerous seemingly irrelevant information that we choose to put

online, which can can be used by some concealed audiences to attack not only ourselves but

also our companies. He indicates that this threats are easily to be ignored due to the fake

sense of safety of users. The author also lists some useful security advices to readers.

When I first read this article, I started to wonder what is over-sharing? With this question, I read some articles online and found out that most people would like to consider over-sharing as broadcasting too much personal information on social media. In this blurry definition, there are two main terms that could reflect peoples feeling. One is the quantity of information while they other is the extend of intimacy.

As a research mentioned in katie’s article (2014), US youth are frustrated with 'over-sharing' on social media, and they are more tend to consider the tremendous information that their friends put online as over-sharing. These messages may not contain any important nor private information, but they will just pup out at any time and in different social apps. The other factor is the ‘boundary’ of these sharing things. Ann (2014) indicates in her article ‘is sharing a generational thing?’ that everyone has their own comfort level. Definitely certain parents sharing their daughter’s first menstruation online is too much for some people.

While compared with these, the examples that the author illustrated in the article such as posting a selfie on Facebook or telling friends on twitter that you are going to have a two weeks holiday cannot be defined as over-sharing. These are just normal social media interactions. As Internet becoming an inalienable part of our life, more and more daily lives are relied on it, including our social activities. Sharing on the internet has become a new habit and necessary behavior for modern people. People may be soon drifted apart from their friends if they don’t share something or pay attention to others. By sharing some embarrassing moments or problems with your friends, the same experiences or puzzles will provide a crosscut to intimacy.

Nevertheless, the dangerous as mentioned by the author behind these sharing are truly exist. Those people who are not qualified to receive this information may use this news to attack the sharer. Facebook divorce could be an example. As the definition given by the webpage called Findlaw, ‘Facebook divorce refers to the increasing number of marital breakdowns that have occurred as a result of information found or discovered on social networking sites’. Some lawyer also use Facebook to discover some information which can be use in court. However, can we blame these consequences to over-sharing? The evidences that the lawyer has found from your Facebook could just be a scenery photo. Sharing is necessary in our lives and we cannot define the normal sharing behaviors as over-sharing because of the potential information which can be found by those concealed people who has ulterior motives.