Social media is just like all of them, at least if you believe these articles and videos explaining why social media is like …

a string bikini
mini-golf
high school
a raucous bar
ranch dressing
fishing
long-distance running
sexual harassment
a small town
a 3D movie
Shakespeare
the Ed Sullivan show

Social Media Today asks us: Are you sharing too much online?

The answer, before you even bother to click, is: Hell, yeah!

If television is the vast wasteland of Newton N. Minow’s famous speech, then social media must be some sort of galactic junkyard.

We’re all guilty. Every last one of us. We get involved in ridiculous political discussions, post snarky observations about nothing serious, broadcast images and descriptions of our drinks and meals, provide links to articles and photos and games and more … all as if someone other than ourselves really, really cares.

I do think this is all a phase, actually. As an online society, we’re getting something out of our collective system. Perhaps I’m being overly optimistic, but I believe that the way we use and interact with the internet generally and social media specifically will be radically different in 2022 than it is in 2012.

It better be: How tragic would it be a decade from now to look back at all this and say, “Boy, those were the good old days — then it all turned to shit.”

But maybe we are indeed headed on a relentless plummet toward the bottom, fueled by stone-cold stupidity. Case in point: the data in the infographic posted by Social Media Today in the link above.

Here’s the one that really stunned me: 72 percent of people try to keep their Social Security number private. Which means more people are protecting their Social Security numbers than they are their credit card numbers, driver’s license numbers, phone numbers and credit scores. That’s the silver lining.

But it also means that 28 percent of people are NOT trying to keep their Social Security numbers private.

Think about that. More than one-quarter of the population really doesn’t care all that much about protecting their finances or their identities.

From the official website of the U.S. Social Security Administration:

A dishonest person who has your Social Security number can use it to get other personal information about you. Identity thieves can use your number and your good credit to apply for more credit in your name. Then, they use the credit cards and do not pay the bills. You may not find out that someone is using your number until you are turned down for credit or you begin to get calls from unknown creditors demanding payment for items you never bought.

Is this not common sense, if not common knowledge? Are 28 percent of the population really that stupid?

No wonder identity thieves feel like kids in a candy store … and no wonder the costs of identity theft are so high.

Today’s Supreme Court decision on President Obama’s health care reform was the talk of the interwebs. Patrick Gaspard, Executive Director of the Democratic National Committee, got fairly exuberant about the ruling on his Twitter feed, which led to criticism in some quarters about inappropriately spiking the ball. I agree that a flag on his play is called for, but to Gaspard’s credit he hasn’t removed the offensive (to some) tweet.

Takeaway for marketers: Think before you tweet. And if you tweet inappropriately, suck it up instead of covering it up.

I couldn’t have said this better.

Back in February I noted that “one of the drawbacks of online news reading (vs. reading a printed newspaper) is the loss of serendipity. When reading a paper, you turn the page and don’t know what story you’re going to see. You might go right past it, but you might find something you never expected and read it, only to learn something you never expected to find. Online, that serendipity is lost: People generally click to read exactly what they want to read and nothing else.”

That may be changing, at least according to Social Media Today.