1. Social Media Rules of Etiquette, According to Me

    We’ve all seen it, the inevitable piss-off due to someone not suppressing themselves in the social media world. Usually the topic involves politics, religion or some other highly controversial subject. In mommy worlds, it’s the equivalent of breast-feeding and/or circumcision. We all know, it’s a “don’t go there”!

    Even though I know people are still new to this social media world, it still baffles me how unaware some folks are about proper etiquette. Of course, everyone uses social media for different things but there still are general guidelines.

    Consider this: would you bring up this topic at a nice dinner with friends, new acquaintances and a few guests you don’t know? If you say no - then it’s probably best to keep your fingers silent.

    1. Politics and Religion. Guess what? Not everyone agrees with you! You may think others want to hear about how you’re very pissed off about gun control or gay marriage. Even if most of your friends DO agree with you, keep it sweet and you’ll gain respect of everyone.
    2. Vague status updates. Some examples: “Karla is thinking”… or…”Karla just is”… or one of my personal favorites “:)” some sort of emoticon. huh? This does nothing besides clog up everyone’s news feeds.
    3. Multiple postings per day. If you need to post more than twice a day, you’re probably posting too much. On the flip side to that, if you rarely post and post a few times one day, you’re off the hook. Also included are multiple postings at one event - why not just reply to yourself as the event goes along?
    4. Know what you’re using. Don’t use an @ if you’re replying to someone on Facebook. Try Twitter and you’ll figure it out pretty quickly.
    5. Link Bait as your ONLY updates. If you’re only posting links to other links all day, where’s your personality in that? Updates should be a balance of you, what you find interesting, and what you think others would find interesting.
    6. Bragging. uggghhh. We all have one of these on our friend list. Why we haven’t deleted them yet is still a mystery. Let’s not talk about how you closed the deal, again. Or how you’re cruising in your brand new beemer with the top down pulling in money from unemployment (while the rest of us pay for your spending habits) - shouldn’t you not be posting and driving anyway? We are all happy for our friends when good things come their way, but not when it’s every hour, every day and always something FABULOUS!!!
    7. Spelling errors. Jus cuz ur on the internet doesnt meen you dont need to use ur brain.
    8. Details. What you’re having for dinner, how you are off to a meeting in a few minutes or other unimportant details. No. One. Cares.
    9. Family Life. This one is tough. I believe that some people DO want to hear updates on the kids. It’s when it becomes overboard is where you draw the line. If every single one of your posts is relating to your children, maybe it’s time you had a little time-out.
    10. Last but not least, Spoilers. If you absolutely love a certain TV show and MUST post about how great the season ending was, wait a day! A lot of people use Ti-vo or watch it at a different time. This goes for endings of books too. I’ll never forget the time I unfortunately came across the ending of Harry Potter when I was just finishing book #6. I was so pissed, I wrote a complaint letter!