RESPECT PEOPLE’S PRIVACY WHEN SHARING CONTENT ON THE INTERNET
Everyone wants to tell stories these days and do so to the largest possible audience online. Due to the competition among all these story tellers, some circumvent the norms of decency by recording and exposing personal moments in the lives of others. This is very wrong. As in the traditional media, it is important to respect people’s privacy when sharing content on social media and other platforms on the internet.
Except someone is making a public display, like the fellows who do dramatic proposals, it is not proper to record ordinary people who are going about their businesses without their permission as part of online content creation.
Even if you’re not among those scrabbling for stories for commercial gain, respect people’s privacy in what you offer. If, for example, you are telling a story and want to use someone for illustration, consider omitting their name or using a pseudonym.
And it’s not only strangers you should respect their privacy. Friends and relatives also deserve to be consulted before you air their laundry in public, dirty or not. Have they given you permission to share their picture, expose their struggles and failings or even their achievements and successes?
Not everyone wants total strangers to know the details of their lives. Besides, you can hurt people deeply and complicate their lives when you share stuff about them or their loved ones insensitively and indiscriminately. For example, publicising someone’s ill health or death prior to an announcement by the family, especially when the person is not a public figure.
So while you’re striving to build your following by sharing original and “authentic” content, know the boundaries and keep them.
Lastly, you may wish to keep some aspects of your own life private. You invite too much scrutiny and heartache when you bring every aspect of your life into public view through online content creation. You give members of the public the license to pry and judge when you make yourself fair game like that and you know how brutal some of them can get.
The best approach is to choose what you want to share with the public and keep a tight lid and control over the rest of your life. I think that will better guarantee your peace of mind and help you find balance in your public and private life, rather than having everything about you on a giant public screen.
💖
This post was originally published on my Facebook page, Aunty Edith, and my Facebook group, Inspiring Quotes, Poems and Stories on Feb. 2, 2022.
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Credit for pic in feature image: Andrea Piacquadio on Pexels
Well said Ma….. There’s alot to be learnt from this post. Most people make post these days hurriedly, without paying attention to the most important details, which is respecting one’s “privacy”, all in the quest for commercial gain/ gaining the attention of others, thereby causing defamation sometimes.
Thanks for your comment. God bless you!
Exactly people’s privacy shouldn’t be intruded because of some insensitive journalist seeking attention
So many people like journalist would like to get a first hand Information not minding if those people will like it or not
Sometimes, they pass the bounds of propriety. Have a blessed week!
Good advice!
I wish everyone on the internet come across this content to know the implication of invading people’s privacy.
Thank you and remain blessed!
Presently that lifestyle is really shading away some morals.
Many have that idealism to become like what they see online.
But reality as well, is out to suffocate such fantasy.
We need to know what to keep secret and what to share. God bless you!
To help achieve respecting people privacy on social media, permission should be taken from them at first.
Some people are secretive while others are not.
It’s true. Some people want next to nothing about them on the internet.
Most times, some of these content creators can be ignorant to the extent of not knowing what is private and what should be public.
Sometimes, they are just greedy and don’t care who they hurt to make money.
I wish people, content creators can know the implications of intruding into people’s privacy.
I must confess I am guilty of this. Most times I may have gone neck deep into a discussion when I bring up a story for illustration and mention names involved. I feel guilty when I recollect what I had said but it’s already out. I am, however, learning to control how much I say and trying extra hard to think before speaking.
Thank you so much, ma, for this.
You’re welcome!
It’s necessary for everyone to know their limit while doing some certain things especially posting stuff about someone on social media without his/her consent .
It gets worse when you see celebrities who put their children in the eye of public scrutiny at a very young age. Most of those kids grow up with their everyday life in the news.
Mummy i so much love this as it explains the society we are into right now, where everyone wants to give first hand information or create content so as to gather followers online and not minding the effect.
It’s even worse when you see celebrities who put their children in the eye of public scrutiny at a very young age.
There’s alot to be learnt from this post.
Most people make post these days hurriedly, without paying attention to the most important details, which is respecting people’s privacy.
People should learn to be reading things like this that can help them to grow mentally. Good articles that educate you on what is proper and improper. Kudos to you, Ms Edith. Thank you.
You can’t have total control of your life if you are always posting your personal business online. This was a great piece. Thank you ma.
This is a very timely post because this is exactly the society we live in today. People making memes with people’s faces without there permission is very absurd and this practise should be stopped. Thank you ma for doing justice to this social evil