The other day I asked my parents if they’d had a chance to read my blog.
Eyes shifted, feet shuffled, lips pursed, and the excuses started to flow. My parents are many things—supportive and loving are high on the list—but they are not subtle. And they really suck at lying. It’s kind of endearing, actually.
It was painfully obvious that either they hadn’t read it, or else they had and formed a not so ‘fan-club friendly’ opinion. I didn’t really mind but I was curious. When I finally cornered my mom into telling me why they seemed so weird about it, she blurted out:
“Well, it’s just...it’s very public. Your father read as far as he could but as soon as he saw the word ‘suppository’ he threw in the towel. We’re just...private people...it doesn't mean we're not proud of you or don't love your writing...”
Hmm. Fair enough. So, was it the topic that made them squeamish? Or the fact that I was the one writing about it? A combination? Was it possible that being so open was—gasp—embarrassing them?
I kind of get the embarrassment factor. Let’s face it. Just like no one likes to think about their parents getting it on, I’m sure parents don’t like to voluntarily ponder their kids’ suppositories. And I guess it could be a little bit strange to think that while they refrained from chit-chatting about my innards, a whole readership could be doing just that.
But let’s go back to the private people comment—something that I’ve heard a lot of recently from many different sources.
Is there such a thing as a private person anymore?
I mean, we live in a world where pretty much everyone’s seen Britney’s ‘Britney.’ We know about Serena William’s blood clot, and Charlie Sheen’s Winning. It took less than 18 seconds for Osama Bin Laden’s death to go global thanks to Twitter. Ditto for Ashton Kutcher’s split from Demi.
We feel more comfortable talking to 200 friends and followers at a time than we do with one-on-one conversation, and when we sit our kids down for ‘the talk’ we have to address sexting and photo-tagging.
I get where my parents (and a ton of others) are coming from. But in my mind I'm still an incredibly private person. I could be writing about sushi, model trains, my ovaries, or sex (sorry mom and dad), and it doesn’t mean I’m any less selective about what I’m putting out there. No matter what I consciously decide to publish, there will always be a reserve of personal, unprocessed ‘me’ that stays private.
I know that some will see this differently, but I personally don’t think of sharing and privacy as mutually exclusive. I do however, believe that ownership is a concept we should look at more.
Regardless of what apps, networks, or platforms we ‘believe’ in, we should all own our degree of information sharing. Because whether you Tweet it or never utter a word, it’s yours.
I own putting my information out there.
My parents own their preference to keep it to themselves.
And I respect their privacy.
Pri-va-wha?
So what do you think? Do you consider yourself a private person?
Is there a line between sharing and privacy?
What’s yours?
Share if you dare.. and stay positive!
xo Kat
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