he said/ she said
A good rule is using the “like” button to break the ice. If you haven’t really talked to someone in five years, you can still “like” something of theirs to show that yes, you’re reading and yes, you do care. It’s short, somewhat impersonal and completely non-threatening.
But with commenting, it’s easy to cross the line. Unless we’re bosom buds or exchanging bodily fluids, don’t comment on every single thing I post — especially if your opinion is less-than-welcome.
For example, I posted a celebratory update exclaiming “I got a great internship at such-and-such!” My first comment was from a guy who always has an opinion on everything — and shares it. His infuriating response? “Eh.”
Way to take a digital dump on my dreams, guy.
Another way to lose brownie points with your friends: tagging pictures. If you have a picture of me where I’m so crazy-drunk that I resemble Jack Nicholson, please don’t post a picture and tag me in it. Please, be humane. Nobody likes unflattering pictures of herself.
But the most common, horrible thing I see regularly on Facebook is people being hateful in their status updates.
And I’m not talking normal hateful like “my job sucks,” “Organic Chemistry sucks” or “the weather sucks.” I’m talking about outrageously bigoted things that my “friends” happen to say.
For example, one person I know wrote, “All the Muslims need to be kicked out of the country, like they’re doing in Australia.”
Seriously.
Why you’d ever put that as your status on Facebook beats me, particularly because Australia never decided to kick out its Muslim population in the first place. I cited Snopes.com on this one and told the guy to at least be an informed ass rather than just an ignorant one.
He unfriended me, but it was worth it.
So the next time you feel the urge to tweet or post, a rule of thumb is to make sure that you’re a nicer version of you, even if you feel the need to post six updates an hour. After all, it’s always better to be annoying than a jerk — online as well as in real life.
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