Because everybody else is!

Would you share the most intimate details of your life with a stranger, such as cheating on your taxes or sleeping with a friend's spouse? You'd be more likely to tell if you thought everyone else was doing it, say a group of researchers at Carnegie Mellon University.

The results of their study could help explain the slow but steady march toward "anything goes" behavior on social networking sites like Facebook, where users are notorious for revealing too much information about themselves.

Msnbc.com has obtained a copy of the report, which is to be released next month. In it, the researchers worried about what they called a "frog effect” on the public. Like a frog that doesn't notice it's in danger when sitting in water that slowly comes to a boil, consumers are not noticing that personal privacy standards are slowly eroding.

Read Article @ Red Tape Chronicles

Very interesting article!

<----- reveals nothing

Uh huh......

Your choice in clothing says otherwise.

revealed that she reveals nothing, meaning she really does reveal something...

have i revealed too much?

^^^how philosophical^^^

Sharing private details is an exercise in freedom.

"It is impossible to go through life without trust: That is to be imprisoned in the worst cell of all, oneself." ~Graham Greene, The Ministry of Fear

But only when we *choose* to share those details, Becka.

the article you link talks about how people are sharing this information freely...no one is making them

its not like their phone calls are being listened to or their emails read....

Sure, but isn't that what the article reveals? That more people are *choosing* to share those details? The point of the study seemed to be that when other people disclose information, we become more willing to disclose similar information because it appears safe to do so. There didn't seem to be any sort of coercion about it.

It all comes down to our growing narcissism, our belief that everyone in the world cares about what we are doing at every moment.

I don't think that's narcissism, straw. A narcissist is wholly indifferent to whether someone else cares about him.

<---Rarely puts anything on my Facebook account.

We don't post because we want people to care about us. We think we are so darn important and interesting that people must want to know every minute detail of our life.

Ok, but Narcissus is the one who ignored all of Echo's important and interesting details, not the one who shared his own.

Well, then I guess it is a sign of the echoism in all of us

I have to agree with Steve; why do you think there are so many reality shows on TV? I cringe sometimes when I hear what people are willing to reveal about themselves, even to the point of accepting money to hurt someon's feelings..

Really, I find it best not to second-guess anyone's motive for sharing information and just think of it as a gift. If it is given voluntarily, then it is free and unconditional and they have no expectation of anything in return. Once given, it belongs to the recipient, and he can do what he likes with it...

I think I have tried stating this before but was refered to as a nazi for it... Oh well

I am not second guessing anyone's motives. God forbid, I might be judging someone and after all who are we to judge anyone. (sarcasm)

All I am saying is the younger generation, raised on the idea that their self-esteem should be maintained no matter what, might have a little too much self-esteem that they deem their every little action to be so important it should be trumpeted world wide.

You're very observant, Doc. Gold stars for you!

Not by me.