Just as you wouldn’t judge a book based on its cover, don’t judge me based on my Facebook profile yet!
According to a recent survey, India ranks as the third highest Facebook users on the planet with around 38,045,000 Facebook users across the country. While this shows the burgeoning popularity of social networking sites across the country, it also indicates how many potential Facebook users you are exposing your profile to. In other words, you need to be much more aware of your social behavior and make sure your Facebook behavior and conduct don’t ruin your image. Therefore, it is important to handle your Facebook profile with a great deal of discretion instead of using it as a sounding board for your emotional eruptions.
We’ve seen the worst consequences of people abusing Facebook today. If you’re not aware of them, here are a few Facebook Stories that made it to the Times of India this year:
- Man Creates Fake Facebook Account of Lover as Revenge
- Jilted Lover Creates Fake Facebook Profile, Arrested
- Dumped on Facebook, IIM Bangalore Student Commits Suicide
Even as your Facebook behavior will never lead to any of the above consequences, you still need to be careful of how you conduct yourself on Facebook. As a matter of fact, how you behave yourself on Facebook is how you allow others to judge you as a person. While Facebook may seem too tempting a platform for you to hold your thoughts back off your mind, take a couple of moments and consider if they are going to ruin your image in any way.
So what are the aspects of your Facebook behavior that might land you in trouble? Here are 5 things you should never do on Facebook:
Washing Dirty Linen
More often than not, many people tend to allow their deep-seated grudges to make it to their Facebook wall. While some express their frustrations publicly, expecting the opponent to take note of them, it effectively exposes their inner persona to people they never meant to share their personal life with. As a result of this behavior, they allow others to gradually build a certain opinion about their personality. Doing this will do you more harm than good as you allow others to perceive you as an emotionally weak person who doesn’t know how to take control of his/her personal life.
Clinical psychologist and psychotherapist Varkha Chulani, says, There’s a fine line between sharing of information and emotional exhibition.” “Love you darling. Muah”, “Thanks for last night”, “We need to talk” and “I think your sister is fat” does not need to make it on the Wall. These conversations are best had person to person. And if this is not the kind of thing you would say to his/her face, it makes it all the more cowardly to say it online.
Posting Trivial Updates
It doesn’t really matter how less or more frequently you post updates on your Facebook wall. What really matters is the nature and content of your updates. Posting trifling details about your daily life will not only bore your followers but also establish you as a person with no discretion. If you are in the job market looking for an employment opportunity, you have to be twice as careful while posting petty updates on your wall. Your prospective employers could judge you based on your Facebook behavior and they will think twice about hiring a person with no discretion.
Launching Personal Attack
Nothing makes your profile more unpleasant to watch than launching a personal assault on somebody you have serious issues with in real life. You definitely don’t want a whole bunch of people watching you make a scathing attack on someone whom they hardly know personally. Chances are you will lose your social credibility in the process and project yourself as a temperamental jerk. Worse, some people will unfriend or unsubscribe you from their Facebook.
Tagging Friends without Their Consent
Tagging is a great tool of uniting friends together on Facebook when you have something worthwhile to share with everybody. However, quite a few of them tend to misuse it by tagging others without any discretion or consent from others. For instance, frequently tagging people that are mere acquaintances to you on Facebook, might tick them off and invite unwanted attention from them. There are people who may be getting disturbed or annoyed by recurrent Facebook notifications arising from your tagging them on nearly every photo you upload to your wall. Resist the temptation of tagging people indiscriminately before they report abuse.
Commenting Immaturely
This is probably the most endemic of all Facebook behaviors. Nearly 80% of the comments on Facebook are either made without a second thought or targeted towards another person on purpose. Either way, it is not going to establish you as a person of repute among your friends on Facebook. Likewise, indulging in frequent commenting only shows your lack of depth as a person and puts your juvenile social behavior in perspective. Make sure you comment only when it adds some meaning or value to the discussion and not make your wall turn into a virtual chat box for others.