It’s easier to admit something to your computer screen than to a person’s face. The anonymous world out there behind the monitor can lead us to reveal much more about ourselves than we should. But how much is too much? As you might have guessed, the answer is “It depends.”
Look at Penelope Trunk. She talks about abortion, sex, divorce, bulimia, mental wards and dating on her blog, even though its primary focus is careers. She also says her blog is about her. “But each of you has a list of things in your life similar to that, it’s just a list you don’t want to talk about. I’m not special — I don’t have more stuff that is difficult to talk about. I just have more difficulty not talking about difficult stuff,” she says.
But she is special. She succeeds in revealing everything about herself because she has a solid brand and career that works for her. For most of us, being open and revealing such stories might not go as well. They could affect future jobs, gigs and relationships.
So how do you know what’s right for you? Review the following things about yourself:
Your job: Are you a freelancer? Are you planning a corporate career? Are you the owner of your business? Are you working for others, even as a independent contractor? If you’re looking for more gigs and clients, then you may need to step back and decide what those potential clients should and should not know about you.
Your brand: Some folks have built a brand for being brazen and can get away with cussing, revealing intimate details about their lives. For example, my brand is conservative, yet casual and personable. The conservative part overrules the casual, which means that cussing in public would be counter-intuitive. On the other hand, Mike “Toilet Paper Entrepreneur” Michalowicz has a potty mouth in his book, which fits his brand.
Your future: Where do you see yourself in one, five and ten years from now? I’m not a fan of this job interview question. But this isn’t a job interview. This simply looks at where you think you and your career will be. The information you post online today will still be around years from now even if you delete it.
Your personal life: What you say could affect your family. What if a college admissions person finds a negative story I tell about my daughter? (Not that I have one to tell, mind you.) I don’t want to impact any of her chances of getting into the right college. If anyone should affect her chances, it’s her. I wouldn’t talk about my husband looking for a job (no, I’m not hinting this either) because his current employer could find my statement and use it against him.
As for me, I talk openly about my being profoundly deaf and my family. However, I avoid mentioning their names, and telling stories of their bad days. It’s not that I’m a private person, but some things don’t belong out there for all to see. One of my kids has a challenge, which I talk about in person and leave it off the Internet.
I share my stories about being deaf to give people insight into what it’s like to lead a life without one of our five senses. It’s my hope it’ll educate them to be understanding when they meet people who are a little different from the norm. No matter what you see, I have the same hopes and wants as you do.
Remember Pandora’s box? It’s up to you to decide how much you want to reveal and what the consequences could be. Nancy Nally says it best in Personal Branding and Self-Censorship Online, “So, what you get from me online is 100 percent me…but you don’t get 100 percent of me.” That’s me, too.
How do you decide what to reveal and what to keep to yourself?
Photo credit: Ekaterina Boym-Medler
Looking at the feedback I’ve got from my previous article about 
It is a known fact that if you want to commit something to memory, continuous revision is the key. You read something every time you are at your desk and within days it becomes second nature.
