A lot of us people today “do not understand” the lack of discretion…when it comes to Social Media and sharing. It IS a conundrum!
Just where did ‘discretion, filters and hesitancy” go? Did someone give them a “boot?” Were they forced out and by whom? Was there a “coup d’état” that I perhaps missed out on? Was there something in the small or the fine print, that I personally over-looked and failed to read? A memo? An email? Something overlooked somewhere?
Must we share EVERYTHING?
Why? To WHAT/ or WHOSE benefit?
People just “blurt out” ALL KINDS OF THINGS…and tell their “whole life – story.” The good, the bad and the SOMETIMES very ugly…
Is nothing private anymore? Is nothing “held back?” Is everything just thrown out there for the entire world to see and to take note of? WHO does this? Well, a whole lot of people, AND I can tell you that, and they do so – on a daily basis.
Nothing holds back some people.
People share “all kinds of things.” Starting with – when you wake up in the morning…all the way until you fall (hopefully) peacefully asleep.
For some of us, there is-way-too-much-sharing-going-on…here.
It is very much like “real TV” or “reality TV” for the ‘literary set.’
We read along. We follow along. We are mesmerized!
Many of us have reached “the don’t want to know status” as we continue to read on and catch every word. I mean far be-it – for us, to not be in the know, or out of some loop!
I can remember “discussions” in the “family home” about “airing dirty laundry” it was considered “taboo.” Kind of like talking about the skeletons in the family closet… You just didn’t go there. End of discussion, you just hit one major road block. Utter silence ensued and followed…
For a child, it raised all kinds of questions and became fodder for our further imaginations…
Hmm dirty laundry! Enter one super sleuth of a detective, Sgt. Joe Friday looking for “just the facts mam, just the facts…”
But when it comes to social media, you cannot discern true from false, fact from fiction. It is just “out there!”
“Airing Dirty Laundry” it is to talk about things (usually a problem or a dispute) …something of a “personal nature”…that should be kept quiet.
When is, “too much” –too much? What about “TMI” – too-much-information?
Well I have learned this:
The word “hamper” in America, according to the Dictionary of Regional English, appears to be Southern in origin and usage. By the early 1800’s Southerners deposited fruits or grains in a large bin they called a “bushel hamper” or a “hamper basket.” In 1897, the clothes hamper was on its way to becoming a popular product: Sears, Roebuck and Company offered wicker models in three sizes for 65 to 85 cents.
With the new-home-construction-boom in the 1950’s (one fifth of all housing standing in 1960 had been built during the previous 10 years) built in metal wall hampers were placed inside the wall…became wide-spread and a common practice. “Concealed Hampers.”
In the 1966 Fall and Winter catalogue, Sear’s devoted three full pages to hampers…all with the implicit knowledge of “hiding your dirty laundry.”
We kept things out-of-sight, unlike today, where dirty laundry is aired, twenty four seven.
Well, it occurred to me that not even the disciples of Jesus day and time worried about airing their dirty laundry.
After all, what is a fight here, a fight there, a major disagreement or a quarrel? To air them, is about to get them out into the open, into the fresh air of the day, is to open them up for the commentary of others…
What’s the big whoop? Who cares?
So the disciples of Jesus had no problem –opening up and sharing with others – what was going on in their lives…including trespassing-wannabe disciples parading about as exorcists in Jesus name. Fake disciples. Fake exorcists. Fake followers. Fake adherents. No HASHTAGS REQUIRED!
And they were successful, where sometimes the legit guys, were not.
We tried to make him stop. We tried to silence him and quiet him, but he would not. He just kept on going. How many more like him – are there – out there? Doing their own thing!
Bottom line is this. It is your dirty laundry. Do you really want it aired out there- attached to you – for all of eternity? Sometimes, it is all just TMI.
WHAT DO YOU THINK?