Welcome back to Roar: The Podcast, Season 5. In this round table podcast, freshman Kyiel Gallanosa, freshman Vera Lau and freshman Chloe Dao discuss the dangers of oversharing on social media.

Speakers:

• Freshmen Kyiel Gallanosa, Vera Lau and Chloe Dao
• Senior Amanda Troll as host

For reference:
K – Kyiel Gallanosa
V – Vera Lau
C – Chloe Dao
A – Amanda Troll

A: Hi everyone, I’m Amanda Troll, Co-Editor-in-Chief for the school newspaper, Sports section editor and the host of this podcast.

K: Hello, I’m Kyiel Gallanosa, an Opinion writer here at Santa Clara High.

V: I’m Vera Lau, and I’m a Sports section writer at Santa Clara High.

C: I’m Chloe Dao, a freshman at Santa Clara High School, a staff writer for The Roar, and today, we will be talking about the dangers of oversharing on social media.

K: So what do we mean by oversharing on social media, Chloe?

C: When we talk about oversharing, it means that many people on social media share the little things about their daily life, but they don’t realize how many consequences come along with it.

V: Some examples could be tagging your real-time location, sharing private problems about family and friends, or venting negative emotions to strangers online.

C: I do think that oversharing doesn’t come from a bad place all the time. For a lot of people, it means wanting to connect with their friends or family.

K: In the same sense, it’s also important for people to have a creative outlet, and to users creating and sharing their own insights and experiences can be therapeutic. Yet, it’s also important to know the lines between creating and sharing experiences that highlight yourself as an individual than just sharing confidential information like everyday things that aren’t necessary to post.

C: We can dive into talking about spam accounts, which are private accounts that people use to post more often for their close friends, but I do think that it doesn’t mean they’re actually private. Even though spam accounts feel more personal to you, oversharing on them can still be really risky and just because you trust your followers doesn’t mean that whatever you post on there can be spread beyond your following count. 

V: Some people spend too much time oversharing on spam accounts. They could be doing productive things instead. I see a lot of spam accounts (that) I follow post 20 or more reposts in an hour, and even if the account is a spam account, what’s the point in doing all that because most people just skip past all those reposts. I asked my friend how many views she gets on those reposts she puts on her spam, and it showed that she only had four.

K: Oh, that’s actually really sad. You know what? I also have a spam account. Overall, spam accounts differ from regular accounts because it gives a… like you said, it gives people a place to overshare and repost their own (Instagram) Reels and everything, but with regular accounts, people actually have to think about what they post. Other people actually have a lot of say in what they post like, “Oh, should I post this, maybe he’ll see this, like blah blah blah.” On the other hand, people – back to the spam accounts – they post without any thought you guys said. 

C: Exactly, I do agree with you, Kyiel. I do think the big reason why people overshare on social media in the first place is because it kind of feels like a diary or a safe space from them. I also have my own Finsta account and I do post a lot on it, almost everyday, but oversharing isn’t usually intentional for me. A lot of the time, including me, I feel like people are just looking for someone to talk to or let off some steam, and when someone is stressed or emotional, it can feel a lot easier to vent on social media compared to talking face-to-face with someone else.

V: I love posting a lot, and ever since I got Instagram, it was life-changing because sometimes I do regret posting things, and I later realized I was oversharing too much, or it was really irrelevant. Something I like to do on Instagram is messaging people. It somehow feels less personal than iMessages, and I like to connect with many others without having to ask for their actual phone number.

A: Do you think that newer users on Instagram… kind of what you were saying or just like whether it’s younger people or new people whenever people get Instagram and have that first taste of posting things and getting to share their lives… Do you think that that really influences… or that’s where a lot of oversharing can start, where you know that first feeling of, “Oh my gosh, everybody can see what I’m posting. I can’t wait to share everything!” Do you think that that first experience can open up a lot of oversharing for people?

K: Yeah. I didn’t get Instagram until sixth (or) seventh grade, so I was really new to it and I actually posted a lot. I was like… you know, I tried to grow out my followers right? I always kept overspamming – overspamming? Oversharing and posting Reels and posting every single thing that I’ve done in my life. So yeah, I feel like there is a huge influence to being you, and maybe you’ll have to have Instagram… I mean have more time on Instagram to get… Okay, Chloe, what do you have to say?

C: I was going to say that when I first got Instagram in sixth grade I think, I was like, “Oh my goodness, like I finally,” like Amanda said, “I finally have a place to share whatever.” I remember I would repost every single thing I related to, like, “POV, you like blah blah blah,” and I would repost that on my story all the time.

K: How about you, Vera?

V: Everything I posted when I first got Instagram is everything I regret posting. I hate everything I posted when I first got it.

A: I get you guys. When I first got Instagram, when I was in sixth grade, I had these really cute Rilakkuma socks that I got from Taiwan. Of course, I thought it was a great idea to post my socks, but really I was kind of posting my feet. Looking back, I deleted it. I don’t have any trace of that photo, but knowing that I posted that when I was 11… no one wants to see my socks. No one wants to see my feet.

K: Oh yeah, I like how we added onto that. Since we were all like… you know what? Let’s just dive into the consequences of oversharing. 

C: Oversharing is obviously dangerous, and it makes users online vulnerable to cyberbullying, which could lead to worse consequences like being doxxed, where your home address could be shown out to the public, or your birthdate, or your birth certificate… stuff like that. Especially since the majority of Santa Clara High or people that use the internet are minors, we’re more prone and vulnerable to sharing their experiences online compared to let’s say more mature people like our parents, grandparents, so on.

V: Oversharing sometimes disguises itself as you being honest about what’s going on in your life, but I feel like it’s less of being real and more like, “Oops, maybe I said too much.” 

K: Well, if oversharing is that bad, how does its effects and consequences change on the different platforms you decide to overshare on?

V: On Instagram, people like to share photos of themselves, and (the) effects of when you do that is a lot of people overanalyze every single part of the photo that you post and make negative comments about them, even if it’s a joke sometimes. Sharing other people’s photos without consent can lead to misunderstandings.

K: How about you, Chloe?

C: I also wanted to add that I think oversharing, on let’s say a private Snapchat story isn’t going to have the same consequences as oversharing on a public TikTok post because I do think that more people have TikTok compared to Snapchat, which lets your post have a bigger audience. The content posted there lasts longer, and it can also be shared to more people than you think. Strangers can screenshot, repost and judge things without any context.

K: Social platforms allow your viewers to have a copy or to document something that has already been posted is another thing to add to the list of reasons why oversharing leaves users vulnerable.

V: Going back to Snapchat, I feel like oversharing on Snapchat can be like snapping someone a photo that you didn’t want anyone else to see. Snapchat usually has features to prevent oversharing, like notifying the other person if someone has screenshot, saved or screen recorded anything you say in a conversation. But I feel like some people could still keep a photo without the other person knowing by taking a photo of their phone using an iPad or any other way. This oversharing can be harmful because you didn’t want other people to see the snap or keep it.

C: You know those comments under TikTok posts that are like, “‘Bye college,’ say ‘bye to college.’” That’s basically like a digital footprint, and that happens when you overshare on social media because people can, again, they can always screenshot, save, share your content whenever they want, wherever they want. Even if you delete a message or post, it’s still out there, which is why it’s called a digital footprint. It could be… anything you share on social media could be a result of emotional posting, which means oversharing when you’re angry, stressed or sad, which can lead to being impulsive and can cause backlash in the future.

K: Thank you guys for your insight. I really want to tie in with how oversharing in media platforms also kinda has to do with monetizing personal life. Don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with trying to get an extra few bucks in just for posting, but what once becomes a tool to connect with others, or it’s kinda like your own diary, turns into a whole money factory.

A: Do you guys want to bring up influencers such as Piper Rockelle, where she shares every aspect of her life, and not necessarily all of it is true, or in an oversharing way, but for views, for things like making a show of everything that’s not necessarily the truth but putting everything out there for complete public scrutiny. Do you guys want to talk about that a little bit?

K: With that, there’s also another popular example, too, like streamers. Do you know IShowSpeed? He documents every single part of his life, and it’s just really a lot. What do you think about Piper Rockelle?

C: Piper Rockelle? I feel like it all started because her parents were the one that put her into that business, and she just…

A: Exploited her.

C: Yeah, exploited her, and didn’t allow her to grow up with a childhood or a social… not a social life but like what a kid is “supposed to live,” like with school and new friends. 

A: And privacy.

C: They forced her into making content 24/7. I guess that kind of messed with her a little bit.

K: No offense Piper Rockelle, if you’re listening.

V: Oversharing has a huge emotional toll to people. Also, a lot of people on social media do these “Get ready with me” and share everything that is going on in their lives while they’re doing their skin care and making money off it. Creators that overshare create a bond to their audience, making the audience more invested in their content. Most of these comments on these oversharing types of content are judging their life, and it’s basically none of their business, but it’s encouraging the creator to overshare for more engagement.

K: Going back to those get ready with mes… Dude, some of those get ready with mes start off so inappropriate. I’ve seen one where they’re straight up in their underwear with millions of likes and hundreds of comments that raises the user’s video to be the algorithm, which allows this very inappropriate video to appear on a minor’s feed, which is another consequence to oversharing as you’re endangering yourself and others by showing that.

C: Yeah exactly. The problem with these influencers like Piper Rockelle monetizing their personal life is that they turn oversharing into a job. All of a sudden sharing every little detail of their life, like IShowSpeed, isn’t something they do day-to-day, but it becomes something they have to do to keep their fans and their income. This kind of pressure really messes with mental health and blurs the line between your private life and your online appearance.

V: Not to mention, how oversharing can come back to haunt you by people weaponizing what you share against you. For example, someone could repost something and another person would misinterpret it and think it’s about them when it actually isn’t. Oversharing can shape your reputation in real life because some people only know you for what you post on social media.

C: A few weeks ago, I was going through my archive in Instagram stories, and I scrolled all the way back up to my first few posts. I would see on my Close Friends, I would post rants about my parents, or people I didn’t generally like. Today, I wouldn’t have posted any of those rants on my story, so I’m really glad that my account is private.

K: I have similar experiences I can call back to. In fourth grade, I used to have this whole TikTok account where I would just vent online. I get you. It felt good if you were going to look back at it because that was how we released our steam towards anything that made us mad, like parents or people. Yeah, Vera, anything else you want to say?

V: Did you post when you were in fourth grade or third grade… in elementary school?

K: Yes, I did. Yes, I did.

V: I think that’s really crazy because I didn’t get a phone until the end of 8th grade, so oversharing as an eight year old sounds kinda crazy.

K: It was a big part in having a creative outlet, so there’s that.

C: I guess that’s fair. Oh wait, Kyiel, I want to bring this up: Do you remember all the beef and drama in middle school? Everybody would post their drama on Instagram on their story and on their notes. I do feel like it was unnecessary, especially because we were, what, 12 years old?

K: Yeah, I don’t know if it was like what Amanda said about the rush with just getting Instagram, but we actually posted a lot. I show histrionic behavior, and I think that follows up with who I am now, but in middle school, I really wanted to be out there. So yes, I also did post a lot and also my beef, but it’s okay as I wouldn’t do it right now. So there’s that.

C: Okay, I do see where you are coming from, but I want to say again I feel most of the time that posting all of this stuff backfires and the drama drags from school… no, drags from social media and into school. 

V: I agree with what you are saying because beef coming from social media is really unnecessary. I remember in seventh grade, I had two friends I was really close with, and they didn’t know each other at that time. It ended up… they had a little argument over social media, and they hated each other for the rest of their lives and avoided each other for the rest of the year.  I feel like they could have the opportunity to be friends from before, but the beef really does drag out to school and causes a lot of issues that didn’t have to happen.

A: Do you guys want to talk about the trend that I think that I have seen a little bit over the past couple months, but there’s a trend “cancelling myself before other people can cancel me.” A lot of people find it really entertaining. I know I find it entertaining because I get to hear people say all the bad things they’ve done, but do you view those things when it is purposefully oversharing, or purposely sharing things that could get somebody in trouble as harmful, or do you feel like trends like that where somebody’s owning it takes away some harms or consequences of oversharing?

K: I think it’s kind of both? It’s oversharing. For example, we didn’t know that you said the n-word in 8th grade, but also hey at least you knew that you said it, and you know that was wrong. Hey, it’s a new you, (but) we’re gonna cancel you… anyways. 

V: Some oversharing is actually funny when it turns into content. I know a lot of people do those meta glasses (pranks), and they do something really funny. I actually find it entertaining.

C: Yeah, but I do think exposing yourself, kind of let’s say you said the n-word, and now you are up online posted of millions of people saying, “Oh yes, I said the n-word just the other day.” I feel like that’s definitely going to backfire, and if you are posting like that, then are you really sorry for it? Again, you’re monetizing yourself basically. I have a question for everyone. 

K: Mhm.

C: When or who should you really be posting to online? Like family friends, family?

K: Well, you know what? That’s a hard question because in this podcast, we formed this general opinion that everyone sees spam accounts are not really that private. Some people actually like to private their account on Instagram, but it can really spread real quick. For me, who do you share it to? There’s no exact answer for me. I believe you should share only about a chunk of your life, but it’s almost in like you need to read the room. How about you, Vera? What do you think?

V: You should only probably share something after you processed it because it prevents emotional oversharing. It’s only good to post where you are after you leave the location because you never know what kind of predators are lurking online. You should only share personal details of your life to people you interact with in real life every day on your spam account or Close Friends story. To know so much about another person you don’t even talk to is kind of an invasion of privacy, and it can be further escalated by stalking.

C: I agree. For example, you could post something super personal about yourself, but then your followers could use that info against you and use that to spread rumors or gossip about you. If you do want to post about your daily life online, I think it’s best that it’s only shared to a small group of people you trust, like your best friends or family members. 

K: Yeah, I agree, totally. That’s very solid. This has been such a wild experience. Is there anything else you guys need to add?

V: Nah, I don’t think so. I think to wrap everything up, oversharing on social media is an emotional outlet for a lot of people, which is great. But the only downside is that you have to be careful of what you post and who gets to see it because it can always be used against you.

C: Mhm! I guess the big message we want to share is be careful when you post on social media. There are a lot of dangers when it comes to these online platforms, and I think it’s safe to say that nobody wants their private information with someone they don’t know, right?

K: Well, thanks guys. I guess you have it, Bruins.

V: Don’t forget to look through the Santa Clara High School (The) Roar website for daily stories by our school’s own journalism class, featuring many of your classmates you might know. 

C: Also, make sure to follow our Instagram @schstheroar and subscribe to our YouTube

channel, also @SCHSTheRoar, where you can listen to our previous podcast and watch our bi-weekly segments. 

V: I’m Vera Lau.

C: I’m Chloe Dao.

K: And I am Kyiel.

ALL: Take care, Bruins!

K: ROAR OUT!