lightbulb moment...

so today i was contemplating the great mysteries of life, as i often do... (*cough*) and i stumbled upon an epiphany of sorts. people often complain that we generation Y-ers have a habit of over-sharing. the need to share every detail of our lives with the world, and then some. and while this occurs mostly via facebook, twitter, tumblr, blogspot, SMS, et cetera, it occurred to me that probably the reason we are like this is because we have been brought up that way. at least partially so, we are in fact a product of our environments.

most people out there would have partaken in 'show and tell' at school, where we were encouraged to bring in items from our personal lives (well, as personal as a personal life can be when you're five) and talk to the class about why the item was important in our lives, etc etc. and answer questions that people may have asked about said item. then there was the song by playschool, 'how do you feel today' which encouraged young children to express their emotions.

and of course, diaries. i don't know if other schools did this, but my primary school, from prep right through to grade four, involved diary-writing between parents and students. so, once a week or whatever it was, we had to write to an assigned parent (not our own) about what we'd been up to as of late, and they were to write back. we were, in effect, encouraged to share details of our daily lives with near strangers.
oh, and who could forget the family dinners (which probably still take place for some) during which our parents would ask us, 'so tell us about your day?', or, 'what was the highlight of your day?'

and so, there you have it. the many ways in which our generation has been raised to be over-sharers. now i have to go update my facebook status. byebye.