Maybe you 've heard them too: people who complain about social media. That 'it's all so superficial! People don't share their true feelings. You can never tell by what they post what's really going on.' True. Not all the time people tweet or post what they really think or feel. They keep their personal information...well...personal. There are simply things you only want to share with your friends, your loved ones, your dog. or your therapist.
Facebook and Twitter superficial? Yeah, right. And before Internet people were completely honest when asked 'How are you?' -'Well, to be frank I'm still not over the divorce, miss my best friend who ran off with my wife; the only friend I have left in the world - my cat - has cancer and a few months to live at most. My 15 years old daughter is pregnant. Or so she texted me from the squat where she now lives with a 27 years old junkie. My car was impounded because I couldn't pay the fines my ex had left me with, but otherwise I'm perfectly fine. Thanks for asking. Oh, and I have three days to leave my house because I can't pay the rent after I got sacked because my ex told my boss about my drinking habit. But enough about me: how are you?'
Should people show more of themselves on social media? Would you like them to? Would you like them to share their private matters in real life? What if they would?
What I don't understand - and perhaps you can enlighten me - why people would state something very personal on social media and later complain 'now everyone knows about my personal problem!'
On social media we tend to only talk to people we are familiar with, that we know, that exist in the same 'bubble' as we do. How different is that in real life, right? Outside social media we always talk to people who politically disagree with us, believe in a (different) deity, like different music, and so on, and so on. Right?
So, tell me: what do you think are the main differences between communicating on social media and communicating in real life?
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