Where Do I Draw the Line When It Comes to Sharing?

It's no secret that I share a lot of my life on the internet. Whether I'm posting a photo of me crying post-movie on Instagram Stories, tweeting something borderline raunchy, or spilling whatever I feel like it about my personal life out via blog post, there's a lot of Francesca on the internet, no thanks to myself. It doesn't bother me, really, until I realize that anyone who matches with me on Hinge can easily Google me and find my blog that details my life starting from senior year of high school, all of the pop culture articles I write, and a few random articles about my family. Even then, it's whatever. If I really didn't want anyone to know something then I wouldn't talk about it.

But all of this begs the question: where do I draw the line?

How do I decide that this is something that I want to share and when do I decide to hit the backspace button until it all disappears? It's a slippery slope of being honest and authentic and then just plain over-sharing. 

I kind of categorize everything into three tiers: things the world can know, things my friends can know, and things that only I can know. The world can know that Tinder and I are good ole pals, my friends can know most of what comes from Tinder and I being pals, and then I can keep the rest to myself. 

Growing up, I had an issue with sharing. I didn't really have any secrets to begin with, but if I did, I'd keep them to myself, tucked so far away that nobody could touch them, not even myself. I guess I kind of thrived off of the whole "it's nobody's business" thing. I think I was also subconsciously trying to guard myself in an effort to preserve friendships, but also to prepare for the day that they crumbled. I unintentionally group hopped, mostly because I felt myself being pushed and pulled by who I was supposed to be and what people wanted me to be. It happened in middle school, it happened in high school, it happened at the beginning of college, and it happened at the end of college. 

It's part of life, obviously. We're not friends with every single person we've ever played Bratz dolls with for the rest of our lives. There's no pressure to have a friend that you've known since you were in diapers or anything like that. But despite the shifting of friendships, I felt like it was happening way too much and I didn't want to make it worse by bogging everyone down with my issues or "secrets." Plus, I was afraid if things did go south, people would have dirt on me. Talk about paranoia, right?

And thus, I kept a lot of things secret until I just didn't feel like it anymore. That's where this blog and social media and the internet, in general, came in. I think it's fun to occasionally "overshare" as I'm sure some would feel. I don't believe in TMI all that much so I'll just sort of talk about what I feel like, whenever I feel like. I think the line just gets drawn when it comes to details that maybe I wouldn't want my grandmother to know. I don't even think she knows what a blog is, but I digress. I'll share the details in private with my friends, but I'm just not the type of person to plaster it on the internet. At least, not yet.

Who knows, maybe in six months I'll be naming names and talking like the gal pals on Sex and the City on here. For now, I like to keep a line drawn in the sand, mostly to keep you all from having to hear the nitty gritty and unimportant details of my life. I mean, the most important detail in my life is my undying love for Niall Horan and it will probably stay that way forever and ever.