Oversharing on Social Media

What do you want to share?

I have complained– in this space and others– about how I hate getting old. But there was an article in the New York Times this week about the new relationship rules regarding social media, that made me glad I’m a geezer.

Most of my friends and family are baffled by Twitter and have never heard of Pinterest so I’m not too worried about my birthday party locations or paint colors being outed in public.  Frankly, I wish I had more to hide.

While many of my contemporaries do post on Facebook, it’s all still new so there is a sense of decorum and respect in their timelines that apparently is not always the case with the younger generation.

Those crazy kids today are Tweeting about how their dates are going from the bathroom of the bar. They’re on their blogs lamenting about their stilted sex  lives or posting photos of romantic vacations without asking permission.

According to the article, some couples recommend ground rule discussions on the first date about what parts of their relationship will be fair to post to their entire contact lists.

Some plugged-in peops are having arguments over social media for sport. I’ve seen celebrities like Jason Jones and Samantha Bee from “The Daily Show”  write passive-aggressive Tweets about each other, presumably from the same couch.

Remember talking? Long phone conversations that ended with  “You hang up. No, you hang up!”

Now there’s no need to call in the first place if you can flirt, fight, and break up all on your smart phone, and await commentary from the online peanut gallery.

I guess I’m lucky that Wilson has no interest in social media. He used Facebook just a few times to spy on old high school acquaintances and although I made him get on Twitter to follow me (@carpoolcandy)  he has no idea how it works.  12-year-old Jacob is desperate to get on Facebook but I see no reason for another distraction that seems to have no benefits for a kid. He’s already on Skype and Apple Facetime and texts until his fingers are numb.

But I know he’ll be on the social media bandwagon soon enough and I’ll have to come up with my own ground rules for appropriate usage.  Maybe then when I want Jacob to clean his room, I’ll  take a photo of the heaping piles and post it on Facebook to shame him into doing the job. Ah, the wonders of technology.

Read the Times article here:  http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/26/fashion/for-couples-new-source-of-online-friction.html