Why I don’t share much about my private life

Yes I post daily blogs, yes I post something on Instagram on a daily basis, but do I share much of my ‘real life’ online? No I don’t. What I share is hardly ever related to work, friends, family and other activities I do in my daily life. When I do share, I am vague and hardly ever post in ‘real time’. Even though I am aware that sharing your personal life with your readers ups your level of likeability and makes it easier to relate to the person behind the blog, I do not feel inclined to post about my life’s daily goings on on social media and my blog. Here’s why.

Had lunch at this bright red boat with a friend. I pictured the boat, not the friend. 😉

Other people’s lives

One reason why I do not include my friends and family on my blog or on my social media channels it because I don’t want to burden them with that. I choose to blog and have an online presence, but just because I do, doesn’t mean that everybody else who knows me is automatically part of that as well. Even if they don’t mind, I would just feel bad just asking whether they would be okay with it.

Additionally I like to keep my phone out of my social interactions as much as possible. I can go a full working day without checking my phone while at work and the same goes for outings with friends and family. I try very consciously to not be glued to my phone. The result? No pictures of my immediate social circle.

Private vs work

The most important reason for me to keep my private life private as much as I can has to be with work. I like keeping my work and private life pretty separate. For a long time I didn’t add coworkers to my social media channels while I still worked with them and I definitely limit my online interactions with students too.

This is why most of my social media posts are related to my blog, or when I do post about something I am up to, I will keep things vague and cryptic. I use my blog at work: students and colleagues know about this place, hence I don’t mind sharing that on my public social media channels.

However, that clip from dance class I really don’t want to see floating around the web for eternity as that is something I do in my off time and I don’t find it necessary to share that with the world. I like having them for personal reference, but it’s not something I am about to share on Youtube.

Not real time

Just because I post something daily doesn’t mean that that post was made right at that moment. There is usually a few hours and sometimes even days between the moment of taking a picture and its appearance on my Instagram. I write blog posts the night before usually, but the posts and the ideas used to create them can be months if not years old.

On the one hand because it’s only way for me to combine my work with my blog, but on the other also because I like taking my time testing out products before I actually review them. I will take out at least 2 months to review skincare products and if you follow my blog you know that an eyeshadow palette review will almost always be accompanied by at least 3 different eye looks. So one reason for not blogging and gramming in real time is practicality but it’s also a matter of principle.

Why do it?

After reading this you might think: why do it then? Why blog on a daily basis and post daily Instagram posts? Because I like it! I started this blog to write about topics that interest me that I couldn’t necessarily share with the people I know in the real world. When I started none of my friends were very interested in nail polish or make up and I had a hard time sharing the music I love with the people I love. That’s why I started blogging and that’s why I still blog.

Truth be told, through keeping this blog I have made new friends and met different people and also people who I’ve known for a longer time now come to ask me for advice on beauty related topics. In short, my online and offline activities are starting to overlap. But that doesn’t mean that I cannot keep things separate still.

I do not feel comfortable sharing my daily musings with the world for the sheer fact that I feel that certain things just shouldn’t be shared. I also want people to read my blogs because they like my reviews, my recipes and the things I write about, which in a way is reflection of who I am as a person to begin with. By writing what I write and posting what I post I show a little bit of who I am on a daily basis already.

Do you share much of your private life online?
Why or why not?