The Art of Restraint: Why Do We Often "Oversharing" on Social Media?

Illustration of two women monitoring social media (Unsplash)

JAKARTA - Have you ever felt regret after posting something too personal on social media? This phenomenon is known as oversharing, an act of sharing information excessively that often happens without us realizing it.

Psychologist Ayu S. Sadewo, S.Psi explained that the main trigger for this behavior is usually the intensity of emotions. When someone feels very happy, sad, or angry, logic tends to lose out to impulsive impulses.

According to this psychologist from the University of Indonesia, there are several limitations that are often violated when someone starts sharing excessively:

Too Personal Content: Posting things that should be in the private realm to the public space.

Involving Other People: Sharing the stories or privacy of other parties without clear permission.

Emotional Posting: Posting something when feelings are running high, so you lose the ability to think about the long-term impact.

In order not to be trapped in digital regrets, Ayu suggests the importance of having self-awareness. One of the simplest methods that can be done is to implement the "Pause" technique or take a moment.

"Before pressing the post button, take a moment. You can do this by taking a deep breath several times so that your brain can think rationally and no longer be controlled by momentary emotions," he explained as quoted by ANTARA.

By giving a pause, we give the opportunity for the logical thinking process to become active again. As a result, we can be smarter in sorting out which moments are worth sharing and which are just kept for ourselves.