Social Network Etiquette: Minding your manners in a digital world.

 

I grew up before the world wide web existed and most of what we see today as social media was not even a thought we would have understood back then.  Social media is an amazing thing when you put it in context of how it has made the world connected and one might say smaller.  It has also been problematic  in many ways.  It has emboldened behavior that would more than likely not happen in a normal exchange between people face to face. There is just something about typing words on a screen that is easy to dismiss that there is a real live person on the other end receiving those words.    

  While there is much to be shared and talked about on this subject and this would probably make an excellent speech topic. I will keep this educational moment brief. 

   I would offer this:  If you would not say it to someones face the way you are about to say it in a post on social media don't post it!  This perhaps obviously is about relationships with others who will read what is posted but it has ramifications larger than that.  There are many aspects of social media where it will reflect poorly on you in many different ways including professionally in your career, personally in a moment of weakness and now it is an arguably a permanent record.    How do I know this? I have been guilty of making careless and even sometimes stupid comments and I am ashamed to say I hurt peoples feelings and offended them, for no real good reason other than I wanted to be "Right". 

  I shared in a speech a while back that I made a commitment to not make negative posts or comments online ever again.  I have tried to and have mostly kept to that commitment to myself and it has been good.  What I found was how much people are starving for positivity in their online experience and I am guessing in their lives period.  That is what I want to be part of!   Try posting something positive and see what kind of response you get! My experience is I get overwhelming positive responses back.   

  As toastmasters we work on being better communicators, better leaders and I have said it before, better people. Let's extend that idea into the way we post on social media. 

  This educational moment of course has much of my own thoughts on this subject but it started from this article on Toastmasters International  It is an excellent article:  

 https://www.toastmasters.org/magazine/magazine-issues/2017/june2017/etiquette