Share your life Today’s view of ‘oversharing’ shouldn’t always be seen as intrusive

by Emily Cacciatore

Sharing is caring. A cliche we’re all familiar with. Though the advice has the potential for positive outcomes, in terms of sharing personal stories or gossip, when does sharing become oversharing? Contrary to popular belief, whta is commonly referred to as oversharing is not as bad as it’s made out to be. Oversharing should not be looked down on, and, in fact, should be more normalized.

Oversharing has multiple benefits, such as the therapeutic relief of expressing yourself out loud, the comfort of intimacy with someone willing to open up, and the normalization of more personal topics through open talk about them.

Some people could say that oversharing is a breach of privacy, unnecessary, or “too much,” which falls into the old-fashioned narrative of hiding your emotions to avoid “burdening” people. Oversharing is not always an invasion of privacy and has many benefits.

Oversharing is helpful because it provides the relief of expressing ones thoughts or feelings out loud. According to experts at the Kansas Health System, people need to express feelings in the right ways to feel healthy emotions. We need to recognize the emotions we’re feeling, express them in a healthy way, and then move on.

However, some may say that oversharing can leave someone open and people can use your information against you. I think this viewpoint really takes so many human aspects out of the equation. It is natural in human nature to want to share your experience. The majority of oversharing that happens is innocent venting or sharing of emotions. Saying that all intimate conversation is bad is acting as if sharing feelings is as dangerous as telling people your passwords or logins. Instead of thinking about the personable aspects of oversharing, that concept is solely focusing on the analytical aspect of information sharing.

Someone’s sharing of emotional topics can be helpful for them at the time. When there is a lot on

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Beth Swan someone’s mind, the less rational and sensible things seem to them. By sharing these emotions, thoughts, and ideas, people are less able to rationalize feelings and thoughts and can possibly gain another perspective from a listener. Another benefit of oversharing is the comfort of building a deeper connection. Oversharing opens up discussions which lead to more conversations about wider, possibly more personal topics. These topics can deepen relationships and establish a comfortable environment because of the willingness to be vulnerable with someone.

I think that the main reason people are uncomfortable with oversharing is the vulnerability that comes with it. It takes a certain level of vulnerability to be able to overshare. This level of vulnerability might not be comfortable for everyone but the more people around who are willing to be vulnerable enough to overshare will open up the pool for others. When someone tells another person something that may be considered oversharing, the listener will likely open up in return. Everybody has flaws, and nothing makes people feel worse than a person who pretends not to have them.

The idea of not sharing unique topics about yourself is trivial and old-fashioned. In the past, if something was not as nice to talk about, uncomfortable, or just not as common a topic, people might have pushed that information down, and that leads to loneliness. Humans have been around far too long to not fully experience and talk about normal, and possibly embarrassing topics.

Oversharing is beneficial because it normalizes topics through open discussion. Through open talk, eventually there will be a sense of normality about difficult topics.

Throughout time people have valued “normal,” focusing on blending in and not disrupting, but there isn’t a set normal for every person. Every human has a full, eventful story, through oversharing people will likely become more open-minded and willing to listen.

Oversharing is not a breach of privacy--it is bene-

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by Emily Cacciatore

sources: martech.org newdigitalage.co ficial for the oversharer in the ways they are allowed to express how they feel, and it’s also beneficial for the people around them with the immense comfort of the vulnerability from the oversharer.