#Oversharing

         A couple of months ago, whilst exploring the so often fictitious and scandalous tabloid websites, I came across a debate on the question of oversharing with social media. What spurred this debate was a series of photos and videos posted on Twitter and Instagram for the world to see by actor Jason Biggs, showing his then-pregnant wife, Jenny Mollen in rather uncomfortably personal moments. These include videos that show her groaning with contraction pains, getting an epidural, sweating in the delivery room, and especially controversial, a photo of her bloody placenta.

            Shortly afterwards, Good Morning America dedicated a segment to discussing the case and where the boundary is set for sharing personal media on social networks. The opinion of the panel was overall critical towards the celebrity couple, who passed the line between “okay” and “TMI” (too much information) with sharing on social media. It is truly easy to agree with them on that, as our emotional response to seeing someone’s placenta when scrolling down an Instagram or Twitter newsfeed would be of shock and even repulsion. However, isn’t the line the people from GMA defined subjective? How can we know how much is too much and should there be any set boundaries, and if so, should they be defined by logic or emotion?

            Many parents feel like sharing their emotions of joy when they introduce a new member into the family. It’s the so-called “miracle of life,” and indeed, it is not uncommon to see expectant ladies displaying their round bellies like a trophy. Logically, it makes sense: people like to share their newest possessions and happiest moments with others. “Sharing,” isn’t that one of the first words that comes to mind when we think of the purpose of social media? From this perspective, Mollen’s delivery would be deemed acceptable to post on Instagram and Twitter. People who are uncomfortable seeing the pictures and videos should just click the “unfollow” button, then. However, the problem that falls upon the social network itself remains. Should they have the right to take down certain posts that are not straight-out inappropriate?

            A few years ago, a mother posted a picture showing her breastfeeding her son and had it taken down by Facebook. She was upset about the social network’s treatment of a completely natural, maternal practice as inappropriate content. Many of the mother’s sympathizers blamed our society’s “oversexualization” of women’s breasts as the main cause of this censoring, and were revolted with Facebook’s gender prejudice. On another note, Facebook, by its nature, serves as a tool to connect people from all around the world, from all walks of life, each with their different stigmas, to one another. Facebook cannot simply remove a breastfeeding picture for it being inappropriate and bothersome to a group of people when it’s motto is to connect people to each other and be open.

My stance on the two cases is that it is not up to Facebook or GMA panelists or anybody else to censor media that has been shared on social networks. It is the responsibility of the person who chooses to share personal things on the internet to censor their own self and draw their own line, according to their personal beliefs and reasons behind sharing it.

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Oh, and very recently Facebook changed its policy on breastfeeding/nipple-revealing photos:

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/soraya-chemaly/freethenipple-facebook-changes_b_5473467.html