This week: Online Content - How Much to Share? Edited by: Kit  
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What is your best online safety tip? How much do you share of yourself online? How concerned are you about your privacy?
This week's Spiritual Newsletter is all about sharing - or not, as the case may be.
Kit |
How much of your life do you share with the Internet? Are you an open book, or do you like to remain as private as possible?
In my early days online I was very hesitant to share much about myself. This was back in the 90s, when social media wasn’t yet a thing and communicating with people from all over the world was great, to me, but I figured it was good to be cautious. I was part of an online flight sim squadron and met some lovely people there. Through one of them I found a site called PowWow chat, where I learned about free-form text-based RPGs. It was fun, and I made some friends there, but I always remembered that I don’t really know these people. Are they at all who they say they are? If I could pretend to be anyone I wanted, so could they. Most people are decent and trustworthy, but certainly not everyone. I guess some of that mentality still lingers.
These days, with social media, I know that mentality may seem outdated. Many people post pictures of themselves and their day-to-day life on sites like Instagram. I had a friend who’d make many posts throughout the day on Twitter, even letting people know when she was drinking a cup of tea. You wouldn’t think that that would gain her many followers, but you’d be surprised.
I have never found myself, nor my life, interesting enough to do that. I had Twitter for a while when I did radio and political comment, but I never took to it. I always hesitated before posting something because truly, why would anyone want to read what I had to say about music, or TV shows or anything? I still have an Instagram account, but I have only ever posted a couple of pictures of it, and they’re of my cats. Cats are always cool.
It may be surprising, then, that I have shared quite a bit about myself here on Writing.Com. Not so much these past few years, but I used to blog on a regular basis. I enjoyed writing about politics, and philosophy, and pretty much anything under the sun, though I still felt that my own life lacked the excitement necessary to share much about it. I’m a person of a certain age who lives in Scotland with their husband and two cats. I read. I hang out online. I garden. Sometimes, I write. There’s not much more I can say about that.
Except… that’s not the point, is it? This is a new world, where people do find these things interesting. They share of themselves and there’s an audience for that. My favourite Formula 1 driver, Valtteri Bottas, just started a vlog called What's Next? with his friend Paul Ripke, about their day-to-day life – everything that’s not racing – and I enjoy watching it. I liked hearing about what they got for Christmas, and about Valtteri's new bird feeder, and all those little things that make someone human. And sure, had he not been a Formula 1 driver I would have been unlikely to ever learn about that vlog, but someone does not have to be famous to be interesting. I enjoy seeing pictures of people’s cats regardless of who they are, because cats. I enjoy seeing pictures of people’s gardens, and beautiful scenery, and watching cute and funny videos, and that’s only possible because others don’t feel as awkward as I do.
It’s people who make the Internet. People from all around the world, sharing a wide variety of content. Mine tends to be only available to the people of Writing.Com – I always restrict my settings. It’s here that I open up – in my poems, in my blog (when I do blog), in my non-fiction, and even in my fiction, I suppose. It’s where I feel most safe and secure. Perhaps you are the same. My little corner of the Internet, where I don’t feel so boring, nor awkward, and where I don’t worry so much about what people might think of me.
I still don’t tend to share pictures of myself online. I still don’t go on social media under my real name. I generally don’t share my age, only my age category to give a rough idea. It’s not vanity, it’s what gives me a slight sense of control and privacy in what is increasingly a non-private space. It’s probably just an illusion anyway… even in this newsletter editorial I’m giving away several details of my personal life, from my marital status and country of residence, to the fact that I was old enough to play those 90s games.
And I guess that’s okay. Whether or not we’re doing the right thing creating content about our lives remains to be seen. For now, though, I am happy to listen to stories about bird feeders and galah birds, and read the poems and stories you all share.
How do you balance privacy with online content? Are you happy to share, or more content to hide?
Kit
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Wishing you a week filled with inspiration,
The Spiritual Newsletter Team
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Spiritual: January 14, 2026 Issue [#13551]
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