I often get criticized for posting a lot of my day-to-day on Facebook and Instagram. I also co-produce another blog, so there's plenty of places to share my thoughts, my photos, my memories, my meals, my workouts... I could go on. I get that's a lot of sharing and some label it as annoying. I actually consider it natural. I've been social my whole life. I am naturally loud, straightforward and a lifelong extrovert. I am comfortable with who I AM and why I share. Social media is my scrapbook. I'm not the best at backing up photos, printing or framing the memories, so a lot of my life is living on multiple social media accounts. I get I've chosen a public forum and I am comfortable with that, too.
But as of late, I've thought a lot about the wide spectrum of criticism and most of it is so judgmental. In some occasions the critic's tone is one of kind observation, but most times it's mean-spirited and I'm passive aggressively being "called out" about my over-sharing as if I don't know it's a well established habit. Folks even ask my husband if he minds. I get that. He's often the subject of my posts. My husband however also knows his wife very well. He doesn't mind my chronic sharing since I respect what he considers private and personal. Because believe it or not, over-shares like me, do have private and personal lives. We don't actually share it all. How could we?
And yet the solution is simple; for the countless critics, you don't need to follow or "friend" an over-sharer. It's that simple. Social media is made for social butterflies. Yet, I understand not everyone cares. If a person wants out, go for it! Unfollow and unfriend over-sharers like me. Please and thank you!
There's also the idea of humblebragging! I understand that folks don't care about an over-sharer's cute kids, amazing husbands and great lives! Post after post on my feed will be overwhelmingly positive, it'll include the moments I cherish and the life I live. A life I am grateful for and proud of. So yes, humblebragging will be all over my social media blueprint.
Honestly, no one lives perfect lives and NO ONE lives forever. In this day in age, what we've left behind isn't only the memories, but the blog posts, the IG photos and Facebook status updates. I rather leave behind all those little insights to who I was and what a great life I lived. I don't want to be remembered for the bitching or the negativity the world already has too much of. I want to live on as grateful, imperfect and blessed as I've always been!
