So just between you and me, how many Facebook friends did you delete during the political season?
When Facebook was created it felt like the perfect way to keep in touch with family and friends from afar. Somehow while scrolling through everyone's posts it quickly turned into a game of "my life is worse/better than yours".
So here are 3 questions to ask yourself before posting anything on Facebook:
1. "How is what I'm sharing going to benefit the people who follow me?"
There is a fine line between complaining and being raw or honest. Complaining is simply asking for attention. Rawness is being transparent and hoping for someone to say "yes, me too!" after reading your status. I've lived by a saying that says negativity kills, while
2. "If someone else posted this, how would I react?"
Don't get me wrong, I have opened up Facebook wanting to post something similar to "Today I've almost pulled my hair out 4 times, said some choice statements to my family that I wish I would've held back, and just realized that my coffee is still sitting on the counter which may have lead to an uncontrollable amount of tears". But then I realized who cares? It just prompts people to say, "Hope your day gets better from there." And what did I really want to hear from people? Well, not that. I don't think I'm wrong to say that sometimes we think our advice is going to be music to a reader's ears. But what is advice for us might sound like forcing an opinion on someone else. Plus, not everyone needs to know about every aspect of your life. We are all fighting our own battles, right?
3. "Are there actions I could take that would require less time than typing up an entire post?"
Remember reading political post after political post thinking "how do you have time to find these articles and write a post pertaining to the article?" I believe this world is beautiful because of the different cultures, perspectives, and everything in between. But there are other actions that would be more beneficial than sharing your perspective on Facebook. For example, calling representatives, attending political campaigns, and researching authentic information rather than biased news outlets. From another perspective, sometimes grabbing a cup of coffee is more therapeutic than typing out every thought you have on Facebook.
What have you posted that could've been taken the wrong way? Would it have helped if you asked yourself these questions before clicking "post"?
