“To Post or Not to Post...”

by Cheryl Kelly

All rights reserved

(1-18)

I was scrolling through my Facebook page this evening catching up on everyone’s status and happenings, when I came across a couple of observations that I feel compelled to comment on. Now I’m not typically one to criticize, and perhaps criticize is not the right word, but I really need to say something here, well, a few things about the things that people post.

First, please remember there is a line that should not be crossed when it comes to sharing personal information. We have all heard and seen those three letters...TMI...for those of you not quite hip, that stands for “Too Much Information”. I’m sure that you’ve come across those people in your life who have a tendency to overshare. Giving you entirely too many details on personal situations that have happened to them to the point of creating the most uncomfortable and awkward moments. Trust me when I say that no one wants to hear all the gory details of your doctor’s visit and the growth that you had to have removed in the most sensitive of areas on your body. They also don’t want to take a front seat to the argument you had with your spouse over the woman down the street whom you drooled over as she walked her dog past your house. Nor do they want to read a book about your intimate therapy sessions.

What amazes me is that people will post this stuff, sharing it not to just one unlucky person, but to hundreds, if not thousands, or more...what are you thinking? We lose more and more of our privacy every day, we should not be idly handing it over. People...keep your private, personal information to yourself!

Second, I feel the need to address the absolute hatred that I see at times. The political climate that we have today definitely has played into it, but in general, people are just downright mean! There seems to be no filter when it comes to some people spewing their negativity. Whatever happened to the old adage of if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all? I read some posts where it mentally hurtles me back to third grade when the mean girls would make the thought of going back to school the next day utterly unbearable. The only difference I see is that the name calling has just escalated to an adult level, it is almost borderline threatening. It seems that no one remembers that everyone is entitled to their own opinion and just because it differs from yours does not make it wrong, it just makes it different. People...keep it civil!

Lastly, I’m going to swing this pendulum from overly negative posters, to overly positive ones. You know of whom I speak...those annoying, overly happy people, generally couples, who post constantly on every little thing they do and it is always sickeningly sweet. He will post how much he loves his wife/girlfriend and how lucky a man he is and then she responds with no, I’m the lucky one to have found such an incredible man as you, and then he posts, no, I don’t know what I did to deserve this beautiful woman...blah...blah...blah. This ping pong posting seems to go on forever with each one trying to outdo the other with how wonderful they both are and how wonderful their lives are...please, NO ONE is that happy ALL the time. Now perhaps I’m just cynical, but it’s extremely irritating to read these sappy, Pollyanna posts over and over. People...tone it down!

I guess in the end it comes down to remembering that the written word is just as powerful as the spoken one. Just because you aren’t face-to-face with someone doesn’t mean it should be a free-for-all. There should always be some consideration and constraint before posting because once it’s out there for all to see and read, there’s no taking it back. Well, there is that “delete” button, I suppose, but then again, from some of the things I see online, it doesn’t get used quite as often as it should.

Editor’s Note: I could not agree more with the sentiment expressed in this column. (Self-restraint makes me refrain from citing examples as friends from Facebook might actually read this and be moved to post even more such material.) A ‘personal filter’ is quite useful to possess. Thanks for saying what truly needed to be expressed.