Did you have a bad day? Have a tiff with your co-worker? One of your students push you over the edge? Keep it to yourself, or rant to a friend. Take a piece of paper and write a scathing letter. But don’t broadcast your bad day for everyone to see. It’s likely that angry post is going to be seen by someone who doesn’t know you well, and who might judge you to be something you really are not.
Anything you put out on the net is fair game and it could get prevent you from getting that new job, or receiving that promotion you want It could also affect your relationships. It doesn’t matter if you go back and delete it once you cool off and realize you just made a whopping error. Somebody still saw it. Someone probably took a screen shot of the post knowing you would think better and turn around and delete it. They will post out the screen shot.
Perhaps you don’t know this, so I will let you in on a not so secret fact. Most people are going to find a way to check you out on social media, so it’s important you have at least one social media account. It is also important you be yourself, some silly posts, some sad ones. But that post with you looking like you’ve been partying hard for days, or one that rants using every foul word you can think of needs to be deleted from your account.
Young people aren’t the only ones who post things they shouldn’t. I see it more and more over the past couple of years. If it’s really important, write it down and let it sit there. Should it still feel like something you need to post when you go back and revisit it, then perhaps clean it up a bit and go ahead and post.
All too often when we sit behind a keyboard and we get all wound up, it’s far too easy to spout off with things we probably wouldn’t say out loud. This is not a new problem, there has long been a saying about not putting things in writing that you wouldn’t want someone to use against you. It’s just that it’s much more public now.
So, take a moment to review what you just wrote before you release it to the world.
Central Comm