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Multi award-winning fashion, beauty and travel blog, founded in 2012 by Victoria Magrath after the completion of her PhD in Fashion Marketing. Read more...

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Are We Sharing Too Much
Online?

Vloggers, instagrammers, bloggers - we're all oversharers. Or the majority of us are anyway. Honestly, it's because real life content makes for interesting and entertaining watching. That's why Big Brother became so successful years ago, and that's why people vlogging their lives from their bed, is so enthralling. We're intrigued as to what goes on behind closed doors. And so we over share and share some more, in order to keep audiences coming back to our content.

But when is it too much? And are we sharing a little too much of our lives now, that nothing is intimate or private anymore?

I'm personally tied on the topic. My main thought is that actually I quite enjoy sharing. Those cute moments between me and Alex, times before bed when I'm taking off my makeup, or the most mundane of times when I'm just at home doing work. I never feel uncomfortable about anything I upload to the Internet and if I do happen to record something that's not suitable or is a little more intimate potentially, I won't include it. And so, I guess that within reason, I keep my content suitable for all ages, don't include anything over the top and yet still allow a fly on the wall view to my every day life. Is it too much? You tell me I guess. As long as I don't feel uncomfortable being more honest and open, then why not offer my audiences an insight into my routines, my home life, time with friends or anything else. I find that there is always someone that can relate to a moment in my vlogs or pictures, that it helps to share.

But equally, I'm also finding that because there is so much sharing, and so much openness online, it's all just become a little diluted now. So many messages, so many moments, that I feel this is what has led so many of the younger audiences to flock to the drama videos. 'Spilling the tea' and causing extra hype around something that isn't worthwhile, is something I see in excess now online. A large number of the Youtube audience want to get the gossip and see what the beef is, rather than spend time watching an innocent 20 minute vlog. We've all seen a smokey eye, we've all seen the chubby bunny challenge, and so it's gotten a little samey. And with time on our hands being very minimal these days, we are more and more selective with what we watch in the minutes we have spare. It's almost like we've (vloggers and youtubers) shared so much now that nothing is new, nothing is gripping and people are looking elsewhere for their kicks. Like when you watch 5 weeks of LoveIsland and then fall off it cause actually you're not all that interested in seeing another random conversation between two people in their bikinis. You've seen it all, so why continue watching?!

This is just something I've been pondering over recently. Of course a huge huge number of the audience still adores vlogs and watching the daily behind the scenes, and I'm so glad that vlogs are still enjoyed. But I do wonder if all this sharing will lead us to a place where there are no secrets, no private lives, no time away for the people who are sharing and just a sense of 'who cares anymore.'

All of this has led a lot of Youtube creators to switch up their content, aim to create something new and offer something gripping and enticing for this audience. And so, the clickbait culture became even more prevalent.

Honestly my thoughts on clickbait are this. If the title is at least relevant to what you're talking about, and not massively dramatised, it's okay to build a bit of hype around your video. At the end of the day, we spend hours filming and editing videos, for free, for other people's entertainment, and therefore using a more clickable title is something I'm all for. If the user will see something that resembles what they probably expected to see, then what does it matter if the title sounded a little juicier. If you know what your audience might like to see, and you use a clickbait title that might encourage them to give this video a chance too, and they still enjoy it, then I see no real problem. You're not harming anyone - just trying to encourage audiences to watch a little more of the work you've spent time on. The tabloids, the Youtube videos, the Instagram captions; we're all just vying for attention we feel our content deserves. We're all working our butts off on content we're proud of, and having an audience watch it is the icing on the cake. So if a title is a touch more clickable, then it doesn't bother me. I get it. 

And so my conclusion is this. Have we all shared a bit too much? Probably, but that's what made bloggers and youtubers so enthralling in the first place. It was an inside view into a normal persons life, and it was interesting and intriguing to spend that intimate time with them, in their homes, eating dinner with them, putting on makeup with them. And for a huge number of people, it's still so entertaining. But then, we've shared it now, people have seen  everything and so unfortunately the mystery has slightly evaporated for a number of people.

I must admit, that recently I've been getting this feeling that it's all become so repetitive, so samey, so attention seeking, and mainly so oversaturated. It's hard to break through the noise and it's becoming a bit of a mess.

Do I still love to share? Absolutely. But this is something I'm thinking about more and more and I'm eager to see what happens next in this digital space.

I can't wait to hear your opinions!

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