Taking it Personal

For a few years now, I've been weighing the advantages and disadvantages about being more open and honest about my life and revealing more of the circumstances that have combined to make me the woman I am today.  To that end, I've decided 2012 is the year that I will begin to share openly more of my personal experiences and life's lessons learned. There are a number of fairly serious life traumas I've endured, and I feel now that I've reached a plateau of relative safety and security, I'd like to talk openly about some of these things in order to provide a glimpse of what life is like in these circumstances. Also, to offer myself as someone others can learn from, and hopefully, take inspiration from if they're enduring or have endured similar life trajedies.

As an introduction, I wanted to explain the privacy levels in more detail. Somewhere out on the social web, I read about these levels of privacy demonstrated in the graphic above.  (I can't source it; I wish I could).  Each of these levels has its own risks.

Public

When you share something in public, say on a blog, Twitter, or Google+'s public circles, you have some element of risk.  Each person has to determine how revealing to be on these platforms.  

Transparent

If you choose to be transparent, this means you're willing to share openly within a group with no restrictions.  It could be your work environment, a private community, or you could be working at a government agency or non-profit.  Transparency can also be public, but where public is always open, you can exercise transparency in some closed circumstances.  The difference is subtle, but worth mentioning. 

Personal

This is the trickiest level of privacy.  People will differ widely on what they feel is personal information that can be shared.  Of course, like the transparency level, you can share personal information in the community of friends and family, such as on Facebook or a private community such as a Ning community.  But, those posts and updates are understood to be shared among a group of trusted individuals whom you feel won't breach your trust.  In some instances, an individual may need to weigh the public good against a perceived need for privacy.  

Private

This information is secret.  It's something that will most likely be only shared in person, if at all. This type of information has the potential to harm you or someone you love, or it contains information that society has deemed private to the individual. Most people have a fairly good sense of what details about their personal and professional lives should be kept private.  Most employers are explicit about the rules surrounding company information that cannot be disclosed. Similarly, laws protect individuals with regard to their health and financial information. 

In 2012, I will begin moving a lot of personal information into the public domain.  I'm hoping, as I stated earlier, that these revelations will be useful for others. For me, it will be rejuvinating and a toxic cleanse.  I recognize the risks, but I'm hopeful you'll stay with me.