Things we don't talk about on the internet

We live in an age of over-sharing. The ability to hide behind avatars and filters, usernames and screens while on social media has given us a collective sense of anonymity we've grown to love a little bit too much.

It certainly does not help that virality and vulnerability have become a vicious partnership in the online space. The more you're willing to over-share, the more likely you are to gain an audience. This is especially true on TikTok, where personal stories and shameless confessions remain some of the most successful content types to date.

In this era of over-sharing -- where we are constantly rewarded for spilling our best-kept secrets to strangers on the internet -- what is left for us to keep private?

There are many things I no longer share with my followers -- out of respect for my friends, my family, and for myself mostly. I've adopted an "is this a stranger's business" philosophy when it comes to what I share about my life. This has also helped me break my habit of over-sharing online when I'm struggling, encouraging me to lean on the people in my real life for support instead of a bunch of people who don't actually know me personally.

I may be a content creator, but I also like having things that are mine. I think we all deserve that. I like sharing moments of joy and things that make me happy; I don't like sharing things that are sad. That is a shift I've chosen to make in my content because I wanted to prioritize making my content an act of joy rather than one of sorrow.

But that's my personal choice. Over-sharing is not technically a bad thing or something shameful. It's just no longer my style. I needed to create a boundary between my life as a creator and my life as a human being. For me, that has made all the difference.