We all have those people on our Facebook and Twitter feeds- “Just cleaned the bathroom and all the windows in my friend’s aunt’s grandma’s house!” Or “Wow, I am already on my second cup of coffee this morning and it’s not even 9 a.m. yet!” Chances are a million other people are too, they’re just not posting about it. You get the point, social media can be great, as long as people follow what I like to call “posting etiquette”.

What exactly is “posting etiquette” you might ask? Well, considering I am the creator and police of this theory, I have some pretty strong regulations that I think everyone needs to hear.

Let’s start with Facebook. Facebook was created to allow people to share posts, pictures, recommendations, and to connect with other people, NOT to hear about Sally’s every day life in great detail as to when she went to the bathroom, how long she waited in line at Publix, that her 8-year-old son didn’t get in trouble at school today, and her diet is still failing. NO ONE CARES!! This makes people want to unfollow you or talk about you. The occasional funny post or pictures from a family vacation or major life updates is what Facebook should be used for, believe me, your followers will thank you.

I think we could all say that it is difficult to keep track of USB drives, camera film, and photo albums. The upside to posting pictures on social media is that they will always be there, in 50 years you can look back and see them, no worrying about losing pictures. While Facebook and Instagram can act as a great photo storing devices, let’s not forget that what you post, stays there forever.

I don’t think the younger generation understands that they shouldn’t post half naked pictures or drunk passed out party images. News flash, your future employer can see all of this! How embarrassing. I think everyone should remember this simple rule when posting pictures: If you wouldn’t want your grandma to see it, don’t bother posting it.

Next order of business is positivity. Nothing is worse than opening up Twitter and Facebook and seeing the same people day after day complaining about their “problems”. If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all! We all go through stuff that we don’t like, chances are you just don’t hear about them. Don’t make everyone else drown in your sorrows with you. So we’re keeping it to happy thoughts, yummy recipes, and cute animal videos, got it?

Finally, if you’re one that puts their whole life on social media, have you thought about how much information about your life and family is out there? If you’re a frequent poster, I could easily search your name and learn you have four people in your family, one dog and two cats, where you work, what school your children attend, that you go to the same coffee shop every morning, and took a ‘lovely’ vacation to your in-laws last weekend. Pretty creepy, right?

Let’s keep it personal people, or at least make sure your privacy settings are in place if you’re going to document your life online.

Social media is not a diary for you to put your life online for. Let’s use our posting etiquette I schooled you on and make social media a better experience for everyone and something you won’t regret later down the road. If after reading this, you still feel the need for obnoxious posts, please ask for a diary or journal for Christmas and I am sure Santa will happily bring you one.