This morning I was in the kitchen washing my dishes, which I prefer to do in silence before retreating back upstairs to my attic apt.
The annoying, excessively talkative and prematurely familiar guy who just moved into the apt downstairs (yeah we share a kitchen) comes in all "Good mooorning!! Oh you look beautiful today! I washed your dishes in the sink last night because I thought - oh I might as well because I only have one bowl to wash and what's the point of leaving these other dirty dishes in here! BLAH BLAH BLAH.
Then, "I hope your sleep wasn't disturbed last night! My friend came over late; she had a miscarriage... she was just crying and crying in the hallway; oh it was terrible..." UMMMMMMM
After picking my jaw up off the floor I made a sad face and agreed it's terrible but no I didn't hear anything so don't worry about it.
"Ugh, I just felt so bad for her! But then I think about how she was praying to god that he'd help her take care of this child and maybe this was his way of doing that, you know?" (no.) "It could be a blessing in disguise."
WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO?? I feel like this shit is only going to get worse because I haven't nipped it in the bud.

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Interestingly enough, I find that I tend to say more when I'm in the company of someone who makes me feel awkward. I'm only like that with girls, though. They make me nervous. Except you guys, of course. And boys never make me nervous, but you can bet your ass I'm not going to sit down and start talking about my ladybits or menses or sore nipples or pube-shaving habits. No sirree. I save that stuff for mam and sis. And me BFF who's a nurse.

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So when you recognize your bowel maladies or relationship tribulations in one of my stories, you know who to blame.

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And I, too, am often the person overshared to! I understand the author's frustration, but people are just people. I try to respond in a way that doesn't scream "TMI!" Because then they just feel bad.

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Thank you, jezebels, for sharing, even if I don't yet return the favor.

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Most other overshares don't bother me. I assume it is a real problem that you want to discuss.

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In person I am a nervous talker oversharer - I just gave a phone interview that was supposed to be about money, but for some reason I told her far too much about my marriage. On teh interwebz I have no shame. Wanna hear about my cervix?

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Yes I'm sure it's got very good things and all but I personally don't want to tell complete strangers stuff, I have friends for that.

And I meet them and talk to them and everything. I don't know I just dislike the inference that you're uptight if you don't want to talk about everything. I'm not uptight I just like boundaries. I show my emotions very very easily and am very talkative and open in real life, I just don't feel the need to tell it all to everyone I meet instantly.

For example I actually do think that if you have to tell everyone about your sex life in great detail then either you're not really mature enough to be having it or it's not that good which is why you go on about it endlessly.

I know people won't agree with this but my loathing of oversharing is why I have never joined a social networking site either, I don't want people I barely know to friend me on facebook, there's something faintly obscene about the whole thing in my personal opinion as though we are living in a world where our feelings and personal views are more important that the actual facts and I'm sorry but I'm not sure that that's true.

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I know I find it really annoying and embarrassing to be over-shared to but I think it's one of those no filter things or in a lot of cases, a cultural thing. European countries (or those settled by Europeans originally) in general seem to be way more private than others from my experience.

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If you over-share to me, personally, I can smile and ignore it easily enough. Don't expect me to reciprocate. If that means you find me "uptight," all the better -- maybe you won't want to be around me anymore so I won't have to be exposed to TMI.

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With friends, I usually let them know what's going on - I trust them and know they are judgement free, so the big joke is that everyone always knows exactly what is going on with me at all times.

With complete strangers (other than on the internet) at a dinner party - ummmm...not so much. And even as an oversharer, I feel really really uncomfortable when someone lets loose.

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