Week 12 - Rules of Disclosure

The section in the text book that covers disclosing personal information really intrigued me because I applied it to my own personal experiences and I must say, Trenholm hit it on the nose with this one. Disclosing with confidence to someone is always a major risk no matter who it is that you could be talking to. Some of the closest people in your life can really turn on you and expose your personal business to anyone at any time. The scariest part is that you do not know that until it actually happens AFTER you have already told them.

I reflected back to some of my own friends who randomly share things with me when the moment is inappropriate and I will admit that I do not keep their information to myself. I go around and I start to tell so many people about their personal information, but that is not 100% my fault. It is actually mostly their own fault for sharing sensitive information at the wrong time. A particular situation where it was not my fault and actually their fault was when me and few friends went to a bar. We drank a lot and we had a good time and we talked about the typical guy stuff. The night was going well, when out of nowhere the designated driver (who happened to have a few beers in him, bad I know) started to vent about his girlfriend drama. He shared that his girlfriend has a father or uncle ( I do not fully remember) who disrespects him and one day threw bones at him while they were eating lunch or dinner. As sad or messed up as it sounds, I laughed so hard at him. That night I had so many beers, I'm having a great time, I want to relax from a long day at work and out of nowhere I hear this story. How was I supposed to know it was supposed to be serious? Not only that, but I had a fair amount of alcohol in my system so I am not in a state where I can be serious.

Trenholm in this section covers the different rules, which seems to be more like common sense, on the when, how and why someone should disclose personal information to anyone. As simple as these rules are, people should read it just so they can appropriately share personal information and not have to worry if it was the right time or not to do so.