Too Much Information: Are Your Online Posts Everybody’s Business?

In the social media age, there can be a strong temptation to post every detail of your life for the world to see. Most of us have taken a picture or written tweet and in the moment before pressing the send button, reevaluated and decided against it. Most of us have, but not all. Some have allowed themelves to be swept into the tornado of social media and like the violent winds of said tornado, they are completely out of control. There are people on our timelines that we know everything about, from the 2 egg and ham omelet they ate for breakfast Monday morning to the argument they had with their auntie at the family reunion last summer.

Recently, I witnessed a woman on Facebook boldly call out the married man she was sleeping with. It wasn’t even a subliminal – she included a clickable tag of his name and all! People of course began to comment and, like a creep, I refreshed my page a few times and followed the exchange between the woman and the friends of the married man who had come to his defense. She went back and forth with the two men and one of her responses included the phrase “mind your business.” I thought to myself, “Honey, how in the world are you going to tell someone to mind their business when you so willingly handed yours out like a free sample at the mall food court?“

We see this time and time again from celebrities to people we know personally to those we’re only “friends” with online. People will gladly expose a whole heaping load of their own dirty laundry and once someone decides to chime in on the situation, they immediately become defensive and aggressively inform others that their opinion is not needed nor wanted. 

Which brings me to this question:
Does choosing to post about your personal life online make it okay for others to freely voice their opinions? Or no matter what you post, your business is your business and others should simply mind their own?