Published: 2025-09-03
Last Updated: 2025-09-03
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Sharing is a normal part of the human existence. People share food, homes, workplaces, and even friends. Its very possible for the same people to be friends with the same or a similar person.
There is often in implied sharing for things that are part of our environment. Roads are shared by all the cars belonging to people that live, work, or go to school in a certain area. Stores are shared by all the people that want to shop there. The internet is even shared by all the people that have computing devices or devices that are internet accessible.
Its not a strange concept that people want to share, and that they will share certain things. Some things are not meant to be shared however, without permission.
Medicine is one example of things that should not be shared without permission. If someone has a cold, and they share their medicine with someone who isn't sick, offering it to them as a scrumptious beverage; they may not make it work or school on time.
Clothing is something else that shouldn't be shared without permission. If the clothes are too small they might rip, and the person might not have their favorite clothes to wear any more. If the clothes are too big, it may present a safety concern for the person wearing them. They may not be able to reach through the clothes in an emergency, or they may trip over some of the pant leg. They may even rip the clothes, if it gets snagged on something or the pants drag under the feet.
Other things that shouldn't be shared without permission may not be so obvious. Sharing homework, seems fun enough, but it may do harm to the person that is getting all the right answers and can't do the problems by themselves after all.
Libraries, are another place to share, that may not seem so obvious. Things at the library are free after all, or at least it seems that way.
A lot of libraries are setup to view all the different books that are available at book stores. The books are free to borrow and bring back and they help decide which authors, genres, or topics a person wants to read about with books from the bookstore.
Libraries often help kids with finding books to complete their homework assignments, or to learn more about something in school that wasn't really covered in great detail in class. They don't normally require kids to go to the bookstore afterward, or periodically; they don't have very many chores to do after all, and some are still learning math.
Its normally not ok to copy books, or start a book lending business with library books, charging $1 for every book you read and bring back within a few days.
Its normally better, to recommend a book, and to mention which library carries the books that are being recommended. Libraries also have library lending programs, if someone knows which book they are looking for, they might be able to get it from another library. The name of the book and the author might be all that needs to be shared.
When thinking about sharing, interacting on the internet is an important place to consider sharing without permission. Even if someone is on a platform where sharing is allowed, and where the platform says its ok to share other peoples content; the person may not want their content shared without their permission.
They might be ok with explaining why someone likes their blog, or video profile, or photo feed, or music list but they might not want their content shared or reshared. They may want people to visit their profile or learn about their profile from someone who they gave permission to share.
This doesn't meant they don't want any sharing at all, it just means they may not want the size of their profile to grow out of control, and not be able to manage all the guests, comments, shares, reshares, and emails that show up through their profile.
Sharing without permission is something important to consider in everything we do. It helps to understand why we share, what we share and when sharing might make someone uncomfortable.