7 Social Media Don'ts That You're Better off Avoiding ...

One of the most important social media don’ts is bullying. Social media provides people an outlet to rant about whatever is bothering them, as well as the ability to “confront” people anonymously. This is a dangerous combination which can lead to bullying and public shaming. Regardless of your feelings towards someone, it doesn’t justify the means. Plus, if you resort to online bullying you’re no better than a schoolyard bully.

Maybe you’re trying to launch your career or trying to keep in touch with friends at all times – regardless, you should never post personal information like your address. When it comes to your social media accounts, make sure that viewing is exclusive to only your friends and make sure you even know who is on your friends list before doing so. As for career websites that post your resume to employers, make sure your home address is not visible.

Being naive can get you in to a lot of trouble either emotionally or financially. “Catfishing” is common on social media today – it’s where someone creates a false identity and lures you in to a relationship with them under their fake persona. People have been fooled by this countless times, but don’t let it happen to you. If you do make a friend or partner over the internet, make sure you’ve done at least the bare minimum, like Google them, chat with them over webcam, and thoroughly inspect their social media platforms.

Personally, I think selfies are a phenomenon because it’s an opportunity for us to control how the world sees us, and get praise and attention. However, taking sexy selfies to post online may not be the best thing to do. Although you may create a small fan base and get lots of encouragement, remember that anyone can see these pictures. Not only are your pictures available on your social media account, but people can save them and post them elsewhere. Furthermore, people you wouldn’t normally engage with in real life now have full excess to your half naked pictures. Finally, future employers can stumble on them while doing research on you, thus possibly causing you to lose the job depending on the field. It’s best, and safer, to share your personal pictures with people you know and trust rather on the World Wide Web.

In life you should pick your battles and internet battles shouldn’t be one of them. With the exception of discussion forums that debate political and social issues, online fights are pretty useless. Starting a fight on YouTube because FluffyKitty66 thinks Justin Bieber is better than Miley Cyrus while you think the opposite is a ridiculous way to spend time.

Everyone has their own life to live so no one is really concerned about what you ate for breakfast, what you’re thinking about right now, or what your plans are for tonight. Also, no one wants to see 7 almost identical pictures of the same beach or of your friend falling asleep in the car. Keep your posts interesting, thought provoking, clever, or funny but whatever you do, just make sure you’re posts aren’t constant and persistent

Please please please do not invite me to play one of Facebook’s hundreds of thousands of games or ask me to take a quiz about my horoscope sign. If I was interested I would have already been doing it months prior. I don’t care that the more people you invite, the more coins you get for your characters, don’t trick me in to thinking I have an exciting notification when it’s only a game request!

Social media is fairly new so the kinks are still being worked out. We can all agree it’s fun, even addicting to some people, but use caution when on social media! What are some other social media don’ts?