Story by Tompaul Wheeler
“I would just caution about the whole transparency thing,” says Thomas Luttrell, who teaches psychology and counseling at Washington Adventist University in Takoma Park, Md. “I do think that tends to be a western value, not shared globally just yet. I’ve been on many online discussion groups where transparency is not always encouraged or people are quickly judged, or [some group members] don’t quite understand the purpose of someone being transparent. Someone who comes from a less transparent culture might be shocked or scandalized by someone opening up about themselves.”