The best and worst part of social media is the immediate connectivity it provides. While the point is to share information in cursory, pithy bites, there is still room for grace in 140 characters.

· Keep your updates within the confines of ‘who cares?’
· Photos are fun but be cordial in your tagging (unflattering and damning photos are not welcome)
· Don’t use these platforms solely for the purpose of promoting or posturing yourself (please see point “who cares”)
· If you’re angry, mean, drunk, depressed or hostile, please, shhhhh.
· Consider the medium: if it is online it has an awfully long shelf life. If you wouldn’t want your boss or parents to hear something, if might not be suited to blasting on the internet, either.

Pssst….if you don’t want to hurt feelings by ‘unfriending’ someone, but are annoyed by mundane status updates, click that little X to the right of their post and you’ll be given the option to “Hide this Post” and “Hide all posts by …”. You’re welcome!

By Karen Cleveland