PRIVACY IN AN AGE OF PUBLICITY: WHY YOUR PRIVATE AFFAIRS SHOULDN'T BE ON THE INTERNET

THE POWER, PRIVACY HOLDS

Let’s be honest; these days, if something good happens and you don’t post it, it almost feels illegal. Like, sorry, did you even get engaged if there was no ring picture? Did you really get that job if LinkedIn didn’t clap for you? According to social media, your life must come with updates. You eat a nice meal? you post, you get engaged; you post, you get married; you post, you get a new job; you post, you breathe; you’d probably post too, just to be safe.

We’ve traded actual living for digital validation, we’re talking about the weirdness of recording yourself crying for engagement and the pressure of having strangers count down to your wedding like they contributed to the cow. If you’re constantly performing for the timeline, when are you actually living for yourself?

Not everyone needs to know what’s going on in your life. Some people don’t need the details; some don’t need the visuals and some definitely don’t need to know your next move.

Grief has now become content

Years ago, a video of a man sitting in his car, crying uncontrollably while recording his mother’s corpse, circulated. The caption was; “Just lost my mum”. Some people were heartbroken, because, I mean, a stranger just lost his mum, while some were furious. Some were defending his right to grieve while others were asking why he would even think of recording such a moment and just like that, someone’s worst day turned into a content, commentary and moral debate.

Why has our first instinct become “record”, even in moments that should be sacred? We’ve been trained to document everything, wins, losses, breakdowns, comebacks, now, even death doesn’t get privacy anymore. The line between sharing and exposing ourselves didn’t disappear overnight; we slowly deleted it ourselves, one post at a time.

Happy moments come with pressure too

The same madness exists with happy moments too. You post an engagement and suddenly people are counting down to your wedding like they paid bride price. You announce a new job and people start calculating your salary in their heads, you share a win and now everyone is watching to see if you’ll mess it up. Before you even enjoy the blessing, the internet has turned it into an assignment. That’s the hidden cost of oversharing; pressure.

Privacy Is Self-Defense

Keeping your life private is not pride or deceit, it’s not forming mysterious, it’s self-defense. There is a rare kind of peace that comes with moving quietly, where nobody is projecting their timelines, opinions or bad energy onto your life. You get to grow without noise, fail without commentary and heal without an audience.

The need for Validation

Let’s also talk about validation, sometimes we don’t post because we’re happy or heartbroken; we post because we want people to see that we are. Likes have become emotional reassurance; comments have become comfort and once you get used to that, private joy starts to feel empty and private grief starts to feel lonely.

Meanwhile, the people who are actually enjoying life are not online explaining themselves. They’re offline, living, healing, winning quietly and posting once in a while like, “Oh yeah, this happened,” without turning it into a documentary.

Your Life Is Not a Show

Your life is not a reality show, your plans are not teasers for public consumption. You don’t owe the internet updates on every chapter of your story. Some moments deserve silence, some wins need protection, while some losses need privacy because not everyone watching you is rooting for you. Some people are just watching and in a world where everything is loud, privacy holds power!