Think like a Viking: Part sixty three

This week's Viking quote

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Anything can be told to a friend.

_{- Egil's Saga -}

My only social media is Hive however I've used Facebook and Twitter over the years before I saw the light and got rid of them because they are total shite. I used them to keep apprised of things I was interested in, mainly firearms and shooting things, events and people, and rarely posted anything of a remotely private nature. Eventually, I deleted both and moved on; it was the best thing I ever did.

I often saw people sharing almost everything about themselves in various ways and wondered how they could be so free with their personal information, thoughts and feelings to complete strangers. Apparently Facebook friends qualify to know everything there is about a person, *even if that friend is someone a person hardly really knows. It's weird, and not in a good way.

I'm quite a private person, so much so that many people in my real life (offline), people I've known for years, don't know all that much about me; I'm not secretive per se, but don't feel the need to tell everyone every little thing. So, it's probably not surprising that on the interwebs I'm pretty careful about what information I divulge also.

Having said that, I have a few around me who know a lot about me and I call those people friends.

Sure, some know more than others, but a friend is someone I feel comfortable opening up to be it on my past, present, future or just thoughts, hopes and fears. No, I don't tell them everything, but with friends I am more free with my personal information.

A true friend, to me, is someone who listens without judgement but is honest with me; that's how I define a friend in the first place. Secondly, they know not to break my trust. This last is a little harder to police because it's only after it happens one may find out. Generally though, I won't call a persona friend unless I feel they are deserving of the title, and that takes time and effort on their part.

I have to admit that I don't completely agree with this Viking quote as I don't believe anything should be told to a friend at all.

As a non-peopley and shy person I'm careful when it comes to developing relationships and it takes time to gain my trust; that's a learned behaviour due to events in my life. So, I'm not comfortable telling my friends anything and everything. It's not that I have things to hide, just that something that has been told cannot be untold, and information is power. Also, sometimes I think it's easier on the friendship not to overburden it with information that has little relevance to the other person - I did that once and the person just couldn't handle the information and saw me completely differently. The friendship ended.

I don't understand people blasting everything onto social media but it happens all the time. I don't understand people pouring everything out to a friend either, but that happens also. Sure, I totally understand that a burden shared is a burden lessened, but I also believe a filter should be applied sometimes.

That's it for this week, a thousand year-old Viking quote about the sharing of information with friends and what constitutes a friend. I agree with it in principle, but feel some caution is always prudent in respect of one's information.

Please feel free to disagree with my interpretation and add your own in the comments below. Also, feel free to comment with your own experiences with friends and information-sharing in the real world and on social media.

Skol.

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