I lied about that whole "oversharing isn't a social media strategy."
Oversharing is totally a social media strategy. It has just never been my personality.
I love to write but I don't think I have a way with words. It's actually really hard for me to explain the things that are happening in my life without making a joke. On social media, I skip it altogether because asking me to say what I really mean in 140 characters or less is damn near impossible. Putting together some pandering on recruiting or hating on a millennial, rather, is pretty easy. I'm a professional at it, in fact - if that's what you call getting paid to have ideas and tweet them.
We live in a world where mockery is admired and honesty is crucified. When people are really honest about hard times, we use it as the beginning of a punchline. And who wants to be a punchline? Who wants to be the person who puts themselves out there first, only to end up the brunt of a joke.
Now, these pandering don't get much attention, in all fairness. No one cares what gif you used in this morning's e-mail or what you think about... well, anything really unless they disagree. But there are some types of sharing that consistently get a ton of love. Not necessarily oversharing, unless you think documenting every important moment in your entire life on the internet is weird.
Which in theory, it most definitely is.
In no particular order, here's the sharing that gets the most likes:
- Pregnant: I'm past the age where pregnancy inspires panic and we've moved right to the baby showers.
- New small animal (puppy, kitten, etc.): No one tells you they wake you up to shit at 11pm, 2am, 4:30 am and on your floor at 6am while you're peeing.
- Facebook official relationship: It's scary that "Facebook official" is a real thing.
- Engagement: This is what "official" used to mean, y'all.
- Marriage: Who doesn't love a bunch of pictures.
- Divorce: I think everyone gets excited when their vague-booking turns into honesty.
