Fun & Famous

5 things you should avoid posting on social media

I know, I know, nowadays we all love posting more than half of our lives online. Unfortunately there’s no such thing as social media police reinforcements and so we have to rely on ourselves when it comes down to Insta and Facebook ethics. So what can we post? And what should we avoid? And who decides anyway?

There are a couple situations you should just avoid when it comes to throwing private information out onto the world wide web. Only because it can come right back round and bite you in the ass. Here’s a short list of commonly made mistakes:

Something about work or your internship being a drag

Sounds logical, yet a lot of people still manage to make this mistake. Having a shit day? Are your colleagues annoying you? Want to post everything that irritates you onto Facebook? Don’t do it. Not only because you can risk losing your job, you embarrass your current employer and put all potential future jobs in jeopardy. Social media is not the platform to do this. If you’ve got to complain, go and do it with your friends, or even better: talk to the person you’re having issues with.

Something including your address and phone number

Speaking from experience: it’s not a wise decision to post an address or phone number on the internet for everyone to see. It’s a little more difficult when you’re a freelancer, but if you’ve never dealt with the problem: good for you. Keep it that way. I understand the temptation of wanting to ‘check in’ on Facebook, but mi casa isn’t su casa. And nobody wants creepy stalkers showing up at their front door. Or scary phone calls in the middle of the night.

Something with someone else’s kids

Women go berserk for anything mini-sized, because mini is cute. Mini cucumbers. Mini kittens. I seriously recently bought a mini pineapple at the grocery store even though it tasted like shit. Anyway, little kids are cute too. But they don’t understand social media yet and who are we to throw them into the online world without their consent? Especially when they aren’t even your own kids.

Something with when you’re out of the country

This one still has the tendency to go wrong a little too often. And yes, I’m guilty of taking part when I know it really isn’t the smartest move to make. Updates like: ’the next two weeks I’m going to be hanging out in a tropical paradise on the other side of the globe, people’ making it really easy for unwanted people to show up at your house and break in.

Something with a tad too much nudity

Even if you were fourteen at the time, even if you’ve deleted it, even if the only person you sent it to was your boy through WhatsApp, it only takes one print screen and you will eternally be found on the web in that racy pose online if you’re unlucky. Seriously, the more of yourself that you throw online, the more it’ll be used against you in the future. Think twice (or three times) before you post things.