Why do people share their personal information on their Facebook and blogs?

If people value their privacy, why do they share personal information on their Facebook pages and in their blogs?

After considering this question, I opened my Facebook account and reviewed my privacy settings. There are always updates to the privacy settings that are sent to my e-mail account, and many times I simply click the “agree” button because I am too busy at the time to review the policy changes. So, I took the time to see exactly what I was sharing. And I made several changes to my settings after reviewing that I was sharing some items with public, and that people could find my profile using my e-mail address or my phone number. From this observation, I think that many people simply post personal information without really knowing “what” they are sharing with the public. They may be thinking that they are simply sharing information with family or friends, but the reality might be that their information is searchable by anyone using a browser. The privacy settings are somewhat difficult to find as you must go into settings to make changes, and they aren’t accessed from the pages you visit most often like your profile or timeline.

In addition, I don’t think that a high percentage of people have had something “bad” happen to them because they were choosing to share photos, locations, or other identifying information. You hear of cases where information published on Facebook has led to a crime; however, the numbers of people who have been affected are few. So, people are likely to post personal information because their circle of family and friends has not been affected in a negative way for doing so.  

I use Blogger for my blog postings, and I know that by default all my blogs are searchable and viewable by public. So, I think that some of the same premises for Facebook can be applied to why people share private information on their blogs. However, I also think that people use blogs to promote their professional knowledge and are more likely to want to share their information and knowledge with other Internet users. People can establish a business by blogging their expertise in a particular subject if they have an advertising agreement and a large group of followers.