Do you remember "Dear Diary?"

It's been awhile since I've been able to put pen to paper - or in this case, finger to keyboard. A lot has happened over the last few weeks...things that bring about personal changes on some level. This brings about my topic of the day.

Do you remember back in the day when your started your writing with "Dear Diary?" Back when pens, pencils, and actual paper were commonplace? Personally, I still prefer pen and paper as my medium, but nonetheless times are changing.

Before, we hid our journals under our mattresses or in other inconspicuous places away from prying eyes. Today, we post our woes for all the world to read. I wonder how different my teen years would've been if blogs were available back then. *Shudder* Never mind, I just had a moment of clarity as to how much more trouble I'd have gotten into.

We are developing into a society that no longer takes personal space and privacy into consideration. With all the social media sites on the web, we are being prompted and tempted to share information with strangers that we would have a hard time sharing with friends. Is the cloak of anonymity that heavy and seemingly safe? We post status messages without thought that screams of personal information. We are essentially inviting people we've never met into our lives by including them in our posts of joys and sorrows.

Let's take a collective pause and think about this for a moment. Think about your "friends" list. That list is the minimum (yes, MINIMUM) amount of people who will see your post, depending on your privacy settings. Would you invite everyone on that list to your house for dinner? Would you greet each one of them with a hug? Many are shaking their head no right now. That's my point. We are sharing our most personal thoughts, feelings, and secrets with people we don't even know, in most cases. In a nutshell, this is like walking down a crowded sidewalk and telling every person you pass your personal business.

Ha! I just had a visual of walking down the road and having some woman come up me saying "I've had the worst day. My boyfriend cheated on me, can you believe it? I'm gonna pick up my kids from school then figure out what's for dinner. After the kids are in bed, I'm gonna kill him" before she moves on to the person after you and repeats her spiel. Hmm, come to think of it that would make for an interesting parody or episode of "What Would You Do?" Ha! It'd be interesting to see strangers expressions and reactions at the real life Facebook/social media scenario.

So my point...what is it exactly? I guess it's just to point that time brings change in all of us. Be it good or bad, change is inevitable.