It's so easy to be taken in by the charm of sharing thoughts, photos and videos online and the comments and likes you receive from friends and even strangers give you a certain kind of giddiness, but it only takes one tweet or mistakenly uploaded photo for the fun to turn into a cringe-worthy moment. Here are our top social network disasters and how to avoid it:
1. Sharing is caring, but oversharing is scaring.
Did you get to make a killer presentation, had a great time at the movies with your friends, or found out that cute guy in the legal department likes you back? Go ahead and tell your Twitter and Facebook friends what an awesome time you're having. But if you feel the urge to announce what weird and mildly gross irregularities your body is undergoing, what you had for breakfast, or the one thousand and twelve reasons why you think your boss is out to get you, save it for your loyal (human) best friend instead.
2. Say it, don't flood it.
Yes, we get that you think Twitter accounts like @TheNotebook or @ihatequotes is the best thing since peanut butter, but if we wanted to be flooded with sappy quotes, we would have followed them directly. Stop flooding your friends' timelines or Walls with sappy quotes or mushy musings lest you get unfollowed or de-friended.
3. The Golden Rule for social networking
If The Golden Rule states to "Do unto others what you want others to do unto you", the social network equivalent should be "Do not do unto others online what makes you cringe when others do it." These include but are not limited to: Posting "candid" photos of you and your boyfriend caught in mid-kiss or mid-embrace, or uploading a video of you dancing to a Lady Gaga song in your rattiest underwear.
4. Privacy settings
Whenever you are about to upload a photo or video, imagine this scenario: An irate employee at Facebook had just been fired and as a parting shot to Mark Zuckerberg decides to screw with everyone's privacy settings and make all private photos public. Do you suddenly find yourself worried? If the answer is yes, then don't upload that photo or video.
Always remember that the Internet never forgets and whatever you upload remains in someone else's servers.
5. Social networking PDA (aka 'Public Displays of Affection')
To illustrate:
Uploaded: A photo of one drink with two straws
Tagged: Girl and boyfriend
Caption: A sweet Saturday milkshake with my adowable baby boo-boo. It's been a lovely 425 days, 13 hours, 36 minutes and 20 seconds. Hee-hee, I wuv you, bunny! Xoxo forever!
When your friends like this photo, half of them are being sarcastic.
6. Web of lies
You tell your thesis supervisor that you need an extension on your post-grad work because a family emergency prevented you from working on it during the weekend, but you really went to the beach and partied with friends—and uploaded the fun photos. Hey, professors go on Google and have Facebook, too, you know, so better make sure your real life story meshes with the virtual version or you'll end up in trouble, both online and off.
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