According to Switched, the editors of Websters New World Dictionary have announced that “overshared” is the word of the year.

Mike Agnes, the dictionary’s Editor in Chief defines ‘overshare’ thusly:

Typically a verb, but also used as a noun, it is the name given to ‘too much information,’ whether willingly offered or inadvertently revealed. It is the word for both the tedious minutiae on personal Web sites and blogs, and the accidental slips of the tongue in public.

What a great word!  While it falls somewhat below the brilliant phrases created by the Bard of the Practical Blawgosphere, Mark Bennett, it still captures one of the fundamental realities of life online, that there is far more information provided, whether intentional or otherwise, than we usually need or want to know.

One of the other choices, cyberchondriac, also struck a note with me.  I think we need to craft a parallel word or phrase to describe lay-people who think that they’ve become lawyers by virtue of reading blawgs, statutes and caselaw.  Any thoughts?