Social Media Etiquette: Post Wisely

There’s a lot going on in the world lately, both good and horrendous. The ongoing disaster in Japan, March Madness, Rebecca Black’s…informative song spreading around the Internet. Everyone wants to take the time to talk about what’s going on, mostly on the Internet. But many aren’t taking the time to really think about how they phrase what they want to say, so much comes across as rude or downright nasty.

Too Soon To Joke

There’s no escaping the situation in Japan. Multiple times per day more news is surfacing on their horrendous situation. Some people seek to help, spreading the word about donating or retweeting posts from news organizations to inform followers on what’s going on. Others, however, think it’s a good time to put in their two cents on how it was “deserved” or make rather cruel jokes about the situation. Let me give you some advice. Even if your friends think you’re hilarious and you’re some self-proclaimed comedian (or a real comedian, like Gilbert Gottfriend who tweeted some insensitive Japan jokes), keep any jokes about natural disasters–especially ones that occurred so recently–to yourself, or at least not online. You never know if any of your followers were personally affected by the events. Basically, if you’re going to be anything other than helpful, supportive or informative at such times, keep comments and opinions to private conversations.

Anti-Rant Zone

With March Madness comes many upsets and surprising victories. When a team loses, people tend to take to their Facebooks and post about how *$&%($# messed up their bracket now is or go on about how sweet a victory their team just had. That’s all wonderful. It’s nice to cheer on teams you like and hate on the losing teams. But, keep it clean. Swearing about every bad call, making fun of players and coaches, and even just being overly rude about the team you wanted to win winning (c’mon, you’re not even really playing, so there’s no need to brag until the end of time) isn’t going to change the outcome of the game. Allow yourself one or two posts on the outcomes and then move on. Unless you’re a sports blogger, don’t go on and on about it on your blog either. Not everyone follows sports, and the people who follow you probably don’t do so to listen to you comment on every aspect of a game. Sports games can be stressful, especially with the NCAA championship at stake, but don’t let the stress and anxiety take over your social media platforms.

Death Threats, Bullying, Teasing…Just Say No

For whatever reason, some people think it’s ok behind either a screen name or an anonymous capability to make fun of people to no end. People send death threats on Twitter to Selena Gomez for dating Justin Beiber (I’m sorry, he’s so not worthy of all the love and attention he gets). What made this ok? Since when did the Internet become a bigger forum than ever for people to bash each other and think there’s no consequence? Being a horrible person online is sometimes even worse than being a bully in school or at work; online, anyone in the world can see how horrendous you are if you post whatever you feel like without filter on your online profiles. Even if you are a bully in real life, don’t expand your reign of terror online too. There’s no reason for anyone to lash out at others online, especially under the cloak of anonymity. Such acts of hate will not be tolerated and they will come back to bite you in the future. No one benefits from such actions, so just don’t do it.

Post Wisely

At the end of the days, the profiles are yours and you can post what you wish. But, if you want Facebook and Twitter and any blogs to help your case when looking for a job or internship, then post respectfully, sensitively and with some class. A little censoring and tasteful comments can go a long way.