Some of us are more self-disclosing than others, but telling too much about yourself to others can come back to bite you. If you want to share, make sure that you don’t overshare by breaching things about yourself that you can’t un-tell. Like unringing a bell, once the info is out there, you’ve granted access inside. Telling people too much is also a matter of security and privacy, so just keep your lips sealed.
Your Address
Most people are savvy enough to know that they shouldn’t tell random people on the internet their home address, but it is amazing how many people divulge their home address to random people for other reasons. When you tell someone where you live, you are giving them access to your life, whether you mean to or not. Something as simple as “I live over on Broad Street,” is TMI, especially if you tell someone you don’t really know.
Medical History
When someone says “How are you?” they don’t need to know that you just had a minor stroke, or that you were just prescribed anti-depressants, or even that you are short of breath sometimes. Just the slightest mention of health problems can be a big problem, depending on who gets wind of it. Although all the HIPA forms might seem like a hassle, they are an important way to safeguard things about your medical past you do not want people to know.
PIN codes and Passwords
Your PIN codes and passwords are the gatekeepers to your financial information and probably many other things about you. When you share them with others, you grant them access to anything that you have under lock and key. Passwords are best when they are complex and not something someone can easily guess. If you tell someone, however, it doesn’t make any difference how complex they are; you’ve given the keys to the kingdom.
Intimate Details of Your Relationship
Your relationship should be a sanctity that you have with your significant other meaning that no one needs or should know what goes on in it but you and your mate. When you invite other people into the intimate details, it shatters your intimacy. Certain things are private and just for your ears. You don’t have the right to discuss the personal details about things personal to you two with anyone else.
Family Conflict
Sometimes you just want to vent to someone about your family problems. The problem with doing so is that it isn’t your drama to tell. When you give people insight into the inner workings of your family, that is giving up intimate things that other people should not know. When you tell someone something you should safely assume that “keep it between us,” will probably not be kept. By giving away family strife, you might be unwittingly biasing the community against your family members.
Things You Would Write in a Journal
Everyone has two different voices: Their inside and their outside voice. The outside voice is all the things that we tell to people around us. They are things that we want people to know and we communicate openly about them. The inside voice, however, is different. As a general rule, if something is meant to be written in a journal or diary, then most likely that is an inside voice issue and not something you want to let out. Letting people know too much about what is going on upstairs, the emotions, the conflicting thoughts, the ups and downs, makes you vulnerable to people you probably don’t want to be.
Your Criticisms of Others
Most of us have been in a situation where we have been criticizing someone or what they did to hear the other person say ‘Oh, that’s my sister,” and then the cat is out of the bag. It is a good idea to keep your opinions about others to yourself and not to involve others. If you want to consult someone with constructive criticism, then proceed with caution. It is a good idea, however, never to offer your advice unless asked. Even then, make sure you keep it surface and light.
Security Details
There is a reason why you spend money to make your home secure with security features. It defeats the entire purpose of doing so when you share things about what you have, where, what the codes are, or even where the cameras are. When people know what the safeguards to your home are, they can usually find a way to work around them. In the end, you might think no one is listening, but typically, someone is always listening.
What Happens in Vegas…
Never tell the intimate details of what happens at girl’s night or guy’s night. When you are out with friends, you should safely assume that whatever someone does, it should stay between friends. Most people have funny stories to tell, but it isn’t funny when the stories get back to the person the story was about and they were trying to keep it under wraps. Be a good friend and keep what happened in Vegas, in Vegas.
Big Purchases
It is natural to be excited about your big purchase. But if you buy homes, cars, or expensive stuff, you are not only welcoming people in your life to judge you, you are telling would-be thieves what you have and how they can get it. Sometimes when we buy things, we forget that there might be people we owe money to or things that we blamed on finances that might not have been real. It is a good idea to just keep your excitement to yourself and maybe your bestie. Screaming it from the trees doesn’t make your big score any bigger, it just looks ostentatious.
Your Check-In Locations
If you are someone who travels, it is never a good idea to post your check-in details and other locations via social media. Even if your account is private, there is always the potential that it can be seen by the wrong person. If you want to let people know that you have arrived at the hotel or arrived home, let them know individually, don’t post it out to the world.
Your Schedule
When Someone says “What are you up to today,” they likely mean the highlights, not the whole daily schedule. When you tell people an account of where you are going to be at all times of the day, you are welcoming people into making judgments about your motivation, moves, and motives. Also, letting anyone know where to find you throughout the day is kind of inviting would-be creepers to creep.
Emails or Personal Letters
Emails tend to seem less personal than a personal handwritten letter, but when someone writes you one, they wrongly assume that they are for your eyes only. It is important to keep your personal emails and correspondence personal. Once more, never put something in writing unless you assume that it will be seen by everyone. If there is one lesson that you should learn from this article, it is that.
What You Do Online
Just as you shouldn’t tell people your daily routine from morning to night, keeping your online activity under lock and key is important. When you tell people where you shop, what social media platforms you are on, and other details about clubs and organizations, you are opening up the potential for someone to stalk or hack you, both of which you don’t want to happen.
Religious or Political Beliefs
There is absolutely nothing more polarizing than talking about politics besides perhaps religion. Putting too much of your opinion out there can be a bad thing. Heated debates about religion or politics are futile. Rarely are you going to change someone else’s point of view, or are they going to change yours. It is just wasted energy. Also, when you impose your thoughts on someone else, it can be uncomfortable. If you say the wrong thing, disrespectful. When with people you don’t know very well, keep your opinions about major sources of contention to yourself or you can really create a hostile environment very quickly.
Photos and Videos
Cell phones have been both a blessing and a curse. The adage about “never putting anything in writing,” applies to the new age of video and image sharing. Once you post, share, or screenshot something, you can’t ever undo it. If it is in someone’s possession there is nothing to stop them from posting it to the world. If something is private, don’t share it, especially if it is a picture or video. It literally can’t destroy someone’s reputation and life.
Account or Financial Information
There is really no reason to discuss your financial information where you have money invested, or what you have in your portfolio. When you talk to others about your wealth, you are not only opening up the door for things like fraud to happen; you might also be inviting jealousy. It is no one’s business to know what you have in your bank accounts or any accounts, and, frankly, no one wants to know.
Gifts Given or Received
When someone gives you a gift, they give it to you. Likewise, if you give someone a gift, it is their gift to tell about, if they so choose. When you tell people about what someone gave to you, it can come across as braggadocios, or worse, can get someone in trouble. Maybe the person who gave you a gift for your birthday forgot someone else’s. That can create a source of contention that you didn’t even see coming. Gifts are meant to be personal, keep them that way.
Your Good Deeds
When you do a good deed, it is supposed to be an altruistic way to give back to the community, not a way to self-promote. When you boast about what you did or who you gave money to, it kind of ruins the entire reason you gave it, to begin with. Often, people who need money are not that thrilled with having to take it from others. By announcing how you saved someone, you are announcing that someone needed to be saved, to begin with.
Private Conversations
You would think that when you tell someone something very personal it comes with a disclaimer that says “Hey, this is between us, please keep it that way,” but unfortunately, it does not. Even more unfortunate, even if you do tell someone “Please don’t say anything,” there is a good chance that they will. You just can’t trust people not to repeat personal conversations, so keep them to yourself. Once more, if you have had a personal conversation where someone has told you something, be the vault they need you to be. What goes around, comes around, just saying.
Workplace Drama
When you are at work, it is important to stay in your own lane. It might be alluring to talk about the office slut or the guy who passed out at the Christmas party, but it isn’t a good thing when they become your next boss and blame you for the rumor mill. When discussing things in the office, keep it professional. Once more, if it didn’t happen in the office, it is off limits. It is best not to align yourself with a toxic work environment. It will almost always come back to hurt you.
Personal Problems
Sometimes you just want to get things off of your chest, but putting your dirty laundry out on display is never the answer. When you talk to others about what is happening in your personal life, you are opening the door for people to have an opinion and to judge you or your world. Issues that are brought to light with the wrong people can go down the wrong path, very easily. It is okay to vent to your counselor, but keeping conflict close to the cuff is always a good idea.
Future Plans
Plans for the future are usually malleable, meaning that they change from time to time and from one life stage to the next, but when you share your future plans with someone, you are putting them in stone. You are also opening yourself up to criticism that you might not be ready for. Discussing things that are still in the works and that you haven’t thought through to the end, can bring about a host of headaches and negativity. If you have a plan or dream, keep dreaming it, but don’t share until there is a solid plan to follow.
Being too self-disclosed tends to make people uncomfortable. In general, there are things that you should say and things that you should never tell. Before you speak consider how it will be communicated and what people can do with the information you provide to them. Once again, don't ever put anything in writing.
30 Traditional Sayings That Are Now Considered Offensive by Woke Culture
30 Traditional Sayings That Are Now Considered Offensive by Woke Culture
21 Habits Often Associated With Having a Lower Social Status
21 Habits Often Associated With Having a Lower Social Status
25 Social Issues Gen Z are Determined to Cancel
