Social Media Etiquette and the future God-Empress of the Universe.

April 1, 2016, Eugenia Montsaroff -- for reasons sufficient unto to this day, known to her father as the future God Empress of the Universe – left Seattle to spend the next two months living in the commune of Lalinde of the Dordogne department in the southwest of the French Republic.

Her grandparents generously will be hosting her. They also moved some some of the French school bureaucracy, and she will be attending a local ‘college’*, for which we can’t thank them enough.

Social Media Etiquette is germane here because I wrestled with the appropriateness of posting this new item.

It is not that I am concerned about violations of Eugenia or my folks privacy, but rather a desire not to be intrusive to members of my social media “network.” 

There were similar concerns in my mind about mentioning the time I dislocated my shoulder, or Eugenia’s bat mitzvah, and similar items.

I have some difficulty being sure that people actually want to know about the content of other’s personal lives.

Generally, I post about political or social issues, or humor.  These I consider, perhaps wrongly, to be of general interest and annoyance**.

However, I decided, that for selfish reasons, I do want people to know about this trip – whether they want to our not.

But how much to tell?  I am, perhaps to the surprise of many, an intrinsically private person.  It isn’t in me to post a snap of a meal, or a lovely scene – not only is it generally no one else’s business, I can’t conceive of their interest.

Currently I am swamped by posts, most of which I ignore, though that some times means I miss things like – my husband had a heart attack, or I am going in for surgery.

So, should I say that Sam (younger brother, and up and coming bear of all trades) just got his yellow belt in Aikido, or that the run of my play has ended and how I feel about it, or that my buffer colored tabby is trying to sit on my hands as I type? 

Do people want to actually know no more about other people’s lives, and what should they be told?












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*We had to work the Seattle School bureaucracy, which was harder and less satisfactory.
**The level of response suggests that not that much interest, but still.