Being Authentic and the Price Tag
What does it mean to be authentic?
Authenticity is often mistaken for showing everything, but it’s actually about alignment.
Being authentic means your external actions match your internal values. It’s about integrity, not intensity.
Can you look at your choices and say, - That felt like me? Regardless of who was watching?
You can be authentic while still being private. Choosing which parts of yourself to share is a boundary, not a lie.
Oversharing
We’ve been conditioned to think that being an open book is the only way to build trust. In reality, trust is built on consistency, not data dumps.
Sharing deep personal struggles before you’ve processed them often leads to regret once the post goes live or the conversation is had.
You owe the world your honesty, but you don’t owe them your intimacy. Intimacy is earned through time, not broadcasted for engagement.
On social media, oversharing is often used as a tool to seem relatable. If it’s calculated, it’s not actually authentic—it’s marketing.
The Price Tag
This is where the cost comes in. When you open every door to your life, you lose the ability to close them when you need rest.
In Professional Relationships
At work, oversharing personal chaos can sometimes lead others to question your professional stability or boundaries.
Being too open can give people insights into parts of your life that they haven't earned the right to know.
If you are authentically available 24/7, people will stop respecting your off hours.
On Social Media
When you share every aspect of your life in real-time, you invite the public to comment, critique, and fix that part of your life you are choosing to show. That feedback loop is the enemy of peace, and deciding what you are willing to be critiqued doesn’t mean you are not being Authentic.
Social media doesn’t do gray areas well. An authentic thought can be screen-shotted and stripped of context, costing you your reputation or mental health.
Once you share a vulnerable piece of yourself, it belongs to the internet forever. You might outgrow that version of yourself, but the digital record won't let you.
Authenticity is about being honest in what you share with others but does not require you to share everything. Now that you know the price tag of being too open in a digital world, how should you build your authentic presence?
Download the guide: Digital Boundaries - Protecting Your Peace and Privacy
