Lines in the Sand

Where is the line drawn to what is acceptable to post online and what is not? As a person who doesn’t use social media unless to communicate to long distance friends and family, this line is clear. My social media is used to show my friends and family good memories I experience as I come across them. While post worthy events might not come along often, I use them to make my followers at ease that I at least have some social interaction. For most of my generation, how ever this line becomes blurry and moves across a large spectrum.

One topic that I consider sensitive to talk about online is relationships and their status. Some people consider it a BIG deal to make things “Facebook official” and other people refuse to post anything about their relationships online and both have valid arguments as to which side they belong to. Online relationships have become a new fad to the younger generations and want to exploit all of their romantic adventures. Vlogging, a new medium for blogs where they are formatted in video form are all the rage for young couples to show the world their relationship. People have become crazed with the concept of online couples and “shipping” or metaphorically placing people together. I myself as a young teen had my share of “ships”, hoping and praying that my two favorite bloggers would someday announce their secret undying love for each other, which sadly never happened. One example of this would be popular vloggers, Liza Koshy and David Dobrik. Liza and David were the power couple of the vlog universe and would frequently post videos of them just enjoying their time together. Many would think, “well who would want to watch two kids be crazy?” however the couple shared over 21 million followers on Youtube. When the couple posted the video “we broke up,"  many people’s world was shattered. The couple posted a video releasing that they had broken up six months prior and had a heartfelt conversation of why it was for their best interest. So, is this appropriate content that the world should be watching? These people just poured out their hearts and people were so invested that the video currently holds over 49 millions views. Some people would argue that this video was going over the top and using the breakup to gain more views and being narcissistic, but this relationship was this couple’s livelihood and they were risking it all by disclosing their relationship status. Humphreys states that vlogs have “presentism…[which] gives the text veracity and authenticity” which means that posts are often made recently after an event making the memory clear and fresh (Humphreys 33). They didn’t only put the video up for the fans, but for themselves. Vloggers must, “be conscious and considerate of your audience and it’s needs, rather than getting mired in your own egotism or insecurity” (Humphreys 44). They didn’t want to be lying to their viewers and hoped that they would still show them live and support through this difficult transition.  There have been other forms of media that may have stepped over the confidentiality line, like the Scott Simon tweets we examined.

Scott Simon is a radio talk show host on NPR who lost his mother in 2013. He raised many eyebrows from his tweets that consisted of the story of the end of his mother’s life. Simon was in a fragile state, as one would be when their mother falls deathly ill, but he decided to console himself with the help of his online presence and community. He informed Twitter of his every move of this grief filled process of his mother’s last days including the hospital visits up until her passing. People had different opinions of this string of tweets; many described these tweets as raw human emotion however uplifting, but others complained that it was insensitive of him to post such a painful time. I believe that Simon  posting these tweets are part of his “I” over his “me” as described by Mead’s concept of symbolic interaction. These posts were a part of Simon’s grief process and were a tool used to console himself and others going through similar losses, not for narcissistic reasons which can be “characterized by a therapeutic sensibility… and focuses on the self rather than community” according to Christopher Lasch (Humphreys 44). While not everyone supported this act, the number of people who supported Simon and offered their condolences far outnumbered those that did not. Deaths are hard to take in, but Simon did the right thing by expressing himself openly to gain the support of his valued fans.

Our online diaries can be used in an infinite amount of ways; from food blogs to breakups. The internet will continue to surprise us with the sense of community it shares over all topics. Everyone has their own opinion and values of their posts online as well as the sensibility to post only what they are comfortable with, so we can conclude that there is not a line that can be crossed to what should remain public or private.