We've all been there. Whether it's a horrible night at the office, terrible clients, rude customers or sinfully dull professors, bad experiences make us want to post on Facebook. Something about incredibly irritating experiences make us want to vent to the whole world. Not to just to our roommate, mom, dad, significant other or best friend, but to everyone. Every time I go on Facebook, I see tons of angry-face statuses, long rants, name-dropping places you work or specific people you are mad at. Yeah, it feels really great to get it all out in the open, and you can almost breathe a small sigh of contentment knowing that everyone is aware of your frustrations. Seeing all the comments come in of "Love you!" "I feel you girl!" "UGH, f*** them!" makes you realize that you are not alone- and after all, social media is supposed to connect us and make us feel like we're not alone.
Most often it's your closest friends who see your savage post and comment something to cheer you up. But what about all the other people that see your posts? Like, maybe people that work at the college you're complaining about? Or your boss or your manager? Or that friend that you're not really friends with anymore and your post was most definitely hinting at how much you can't stand her. How do they feel? You might think, oh well my boss doesn't follow me or they would never check my Facebook no one has the time for that. But guess what? They do.
Do you think your manager wants the image of his restaurant to be of rude, stuck up waiters? Probably not. Do you think your boss wants to see that his intern hates everything and thinks they're too good to be there? Do you think your college wants to see floods of negative rants about their professors and staff? No, no and no.
I totally agree, co- workers can be irritating. Customers can be overly demanding and rude and completely unaware of the hard work you are doing. Trust me, I've worked in the food industry and customer service for five years now. I also get that some professors don't stack up to your standards. But, there's a time and a place. When you go to apply for a job and your potential employer looks through your Facebook page and sees angry post after angry post, do you really think that's the image they want for their company? Furthermore, they're going to be afraid you will carry that same temper into their company.
It is so easy to type up something in the heat of your anger and frustration and hit post. It is so comforting to see that other people sympathize with you and had similar experiences. But, it's important to remember that once you post something, it's out there forever. And people tend to take things differently over text than in person. You can say something jokingly to your friend and they can tell it's a joke, but over the computer screen it's hard to convey your true expressions. Although it's easy to post, it's not always right. Text your friend, call your significant other, vent to your roommate- but when it comes to posting on Facebook, please bite your tongue.
