This poor Brit learned about Facebook manners the hard way—with a virtual pink slip reply from her boss. And since she was axed mid-August, her faux pas has gone global through viral e-mails. While she provided a dash of humor to my Monday morning, she also inspired me to ponder my own social network and the often less-than-appealing communications from my “friends.”
Thanks to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, I now know more about my fifth grade classmates than I know about the people I interact with daily. I have to admit that, at first, it was nice to hear about how their lives have unfolded over the past 20 years. But now, their hourly status updates have gotten so informative that I am secretly unfriending these people. I don’t think they’ll care. They are as non-discriminating when it comes to their audience as they are with the information they are communicating.
You wouldn’t walk into a party with a mix of friends and co-workers and announce that your job is boring, you’re attending a job fair or you’re on some strong drugs because you had your wisdom teeth removed, right? So why do it on a social networking site?
If your Facebook friends are overloaded with your tweets and Facebook updates because you feel the need to communicate every thought that passes through your head, just think about how it could affect your career and friendships (online and in real life). Use discretion. If you wouldn’t talk about the subject freely to everyone you know, don’t post it on a social networking site.
From now on, I’m going to more strictly abide by these work-related social networking tips from CNN. I hope my Facebook friends will follow suit.
– Meg De Leon
