Sharing - what, where and why?

Which problems are we getting ourselves and our kids into, when (over)sharing our lives on social media?

In a society where we increase to embrace social media in our everyday lives, new issues has risen when the "share"-button is only a few clicks and taps away.

I especially want to focus on parents sharing photos and information about their kids. In Norway, for instance, we have Privacy laws that forbids anyone to post pictures of you onto the internet without your approval. But what about our own kids?

Based on what we see on social media, blogs, etc, there are many different interpretations of what privacy is really about. Some parents, obviously think their children is a miniature extension of themselves, and therefore makes the decision based on; "If it´s ok with me, it´s ok with him/her".

But what happens when your cute little ones grows up, gets a Facebook account of their own and discover they've already have had a "Facebook career"? Everything we share, that contains information in one way or another, about ourselves or other people, do in some way or another affect our digital personality. I´m not necessarily saying this is a negative factor, but when what we share communicates in some way who we are. So the things we share of our children is a way of defining them to the ones who watches. Events in a toddlers life may seem innocent and cute at the time, but the case can be totally different a few years later when your classmates discovers your parents blog or social media account with events of your childhood displayed openly. Two articles written respectively by Margaret Hamilton and Eliana Dockterman are interesting voices on this issue.

Another issue that the link below also addresses is the social media phenomenons called "childism" where parents post pictures of their kids in vulnerable moments, with the text i.e. "The reason why i cry..." exploiting the trust children's have to their parents in order to abuse it for entertainment. Some parents think this is ok to do, since they as parents, knows whats best for their own child. But of course this comes out, to the vast majority, as child bullying. A article that addresses the childish-topic is found here.

The opinions of these issues are vast and varied, but this is an important debate to get aware and reflected about. So what, where and why do you share? Have anyone found the happy medium, or is it a more complexed matter?