The other day I was going through what the people I follow or am friends with post on Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat. The main thing that resonated from looking at the content on each of these platforms is that the people I follow are constantly sharing where they are or what they’re doing. Mostly it was unimportant information such as what movie they were watching, what they ate or where they were. Sometimes though its a more momentous life event such as moving abroad, getting engaged or having a baby.
The concept that people share their day-to-day events so often and so easily interests me and I was curious to research the psychological reasons behind it. Personally, I rarely post anything on Facebook or Instagram. I allow people to tag me in photos, sometimes I might even put up a few myself, but I never find the need to caption them. I never share where I am or what I am doing. I’m not too sure why I do not participate, I guess its mainly because I don’t want all my Facebook friends to know what I am up to considering I have people I pretty much do not talk to anymore. This fact however doesn’t bother most of my friends, and they still go on to post their thoughts and opinions. However, when it comes to the platform of Snapchat, I am more active and partake in sending ‘snaps’ of what I am doing every so often. It might be that I like the fact that you can easily choose who to send the ‘snap’ to and the photo is gone instantly.
After reading up on the psychological reasons why people tend to overshare online, I found some interesting points.
The first point which struck me was made by Elizabeth Bernstein, were she states that there are two reasons why we share so much online. Firstly due to the influence of reality TV; reality TV has become such a big part of television and also if you look on Youtube, there is a huge community of ‘Vloggers’ (people who record their day and then post a video of it online).
The concept that people share their day-to-day events so often and so easily interests me and I was curious to research the psychological reasons behind it. Personally, I rarely post anything on Facebook or Instagram. I allow people to tag me in photos, sometimes I might even put up a few myself, but I never find the need to caption them. I never share where I am or what I am doing. I’m not too sure why I do not participate, I guess its mainly because I don’t want all my Facebook friends to know what I am up to considering I have people I pretty much do not talk to anymore. This fact however doesn’t bother most of my friends, and they still go on to post their thoughts and opinions. However, when it comes to the platform of Snapchat, I am more active and partake in sending ‘snaps’ of what I am doing every so often. It might be that I like the fact that you can easily choose who to send the ‘snap’ to and the photo is gone instantly.
After reading up on the psychological reasons why people tend to overshare online, I found some interesting points.
The first point which struck me was made by Elizabeth Bernstein, were she states that there are two reasons why we share so much online. Firstly due to the influence of reality TV; reality TV has become such a big part of television and also if you look on Youtube, there is a huge community of ‘Vloggers’ (people who record their day and then post a video of it online).
These reality shows and videos influence society and lead many people to think that the norm is to share your day-to-day events with the rest of the world.
Secondly, people are also pushed by their subconscious attempts to control anxiety. Social platforms allow you to take your time to manufacture what words you are going to use before you post something, whereas having a face-to-face conversation entails instant feedback which can easily lead to mistakes. Therefore, the online world gives us a sort of filter before we post something. It gives us the opportunity to delete and edit what we want to say or even take a couple of hours to think something over. This is not to say that everyone takes the time to think before they post.
Russell Belk talks about the “disinhibition effect”, which is when people share more online than they would in person. This links to the anxiety aspect, the fact that we are invisible gives many people the leniency to be more open and share more than they would potentially share face-to-face.
When thinking about it, modern day culture presents a sort of scenario where it wants everyone to try and get attention. There are so many platforms, so many people and so many amateur producers, that everyone is trying to get some attention. And this is why many of us tend to post as often as we can to try and be interesting, to get feedback through likes, comments and followers.
Obviously, each person posts different content, at different times, for different reasons. And all of that is related to the individuals character. But I find the explanations above to be interesting and also quite correct and relatable to today’s society.
References and Sources Used:
HIEBERT, P., 2013. The Real Reason Why So Many People Overshare on Facebook.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/08/19/oversharing_on_facebook_researchers_weigh_in.html
SULER, J., 2004. The Online Disinhibition Effect. Volume 7, Number 3
http://www.academia.edu/3658367/The_online_disinhibition_effect
Secondly, people are also pushed by their subconscious attempts to control anxiety. Social platforms allow you to take your time to manufacture what words you are going to use before you post something, whereas having a face-to-face conversation entails instant feedback which can easily lead to mistakes. Therefore, the online world gives us a sort of filter before we post something. It gives us the opportunity to delete and edit what we want to say or even take a couple of hours to think something over. This is not to say that everyone takes the time to think before they post.
Russell Belk talks about the “disinhibition effect”, which is when people share more online than they would in person. This links to the anxiety aspect, the fact that we are invisible gives many people the leniency to be more open and share more than they would potentially share face-to-face.
When thinking about it, modern day culture presents a sort of scenario where it wants everyone to try and get attention. There are so many platforms, so many people and so many amateur producers, that everyone is trying to get some attention. And this is why many of us tend to post as often as we can to try and be interesting, to get feedback through likes, comments and followers.
Obviously, each person posts different content, at different times, for different reasons. And all of that is related to the individuals character. But I find the explanations above to be interesting and also quite correct and relatable to today’s society.
References and Sources Used:
HIEBERT, P., 2013. The Real Reason Why So Many People Overshare on Facebook.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2013/08/19/oversharing_on_facebook_researchers_weigh_in.html
SULER, J., 2004. The Online Disinhibition Effect. Volume 7, Number 3
http://www.academia.edu/3658367/The_online_disinhibition_effect