The Case Against Oversharing

In a characteristically brutal rant, Gawker's Hamilton Nolan takes aim at the boundlessly confessional culture created by blogging and social media. "Life is pure performance," Nolan laments. "Outside validation is everything; contemplation of the self is merely a pose designed to elicit comments of sympathy, respect, or even disagreement or dissent." The most offensive expression of this phenomenon? Thought Catalog, a website devoted largely to navel-gazing personal essays. "If I keep reading posts on Thought Catalog," Nolan says, "I am probably going to hurl myself in front of an oncoming subway train in despair sometime this winter."