As many people use facebook at least once a day, or more if they're obsessive like me, and understand those little codes of conduct that make it a pleasant place to connect with friends and family, there are just as many people who use it infrequently or are just plain clueless and don't understand the lay of the land. For those people I have created a list to help them avoid the faux pas of facebook interaction.
First, you don't need to sign your posts or comments. This is a common mistake for older (generally 50+) users who still remember a time when writing to people was civilized and had manners. But the fact is that when you write something like "I love that little picture of you on your profile! You're a beautiful girl! Love, Aunt Gina" you're actually being redundant. This is what we see.
{Your Profile Picture that shows us who you are} Gina Studebaker I love that little picture of you on your profile! You're a beautiful girl! Love, Aunt Gina
You see, we actually know who you are from the start because your profile pic and your full name are automatically put at the start of your comment so you don't have to sign it. But I will say that this is less of a faux pas and more of a sweet older relative/friend thing and it's adorable so if you want to keep doing it go ahead. I'm just saying that you don't have to.
This next one is an actual faux pas. I don't totally understand why people do this (possibly to draw attention to their comment?) but I actually wince when I see it.
The all caps comment.
Everyone has an internal voice with which they read and when we write comments we give certain clues of how the internal voice should sound. When we start a comment with something like the phrase "At least," our internal voice knows that it should sound sarcastic or complaining. Or "Does anyone" immediately signals that this is a question. When you use all caps you are signalling the internal voice to sound angry and loud. For example:
{Profile Pic} Harry Winston DID YOU WATCH THE OFFICE LAST NIGHT? IT'S TOO BAD STEVE CARELL IS LEAVING. I DON'T THINK THAT SHOW WILL BE THE SAME WITHOUT HIM.
It's a pretty mild comment but you can't help thinking that poor Harry is really upset that Steve Carell is leaving the show and that Harry's yelling at you about it. So please, for the sake of us all, cut it out with the caps.
Then there are the people who feel like facebook is a great place to vent their frustration so all they do is whine and complain. Don't get me wrong, everyone complains from time to time on facebook, and if something really is wrong and you need help or if you're trying to keep everyone updated on a bad situation then post away.
But if every time you get on facebook you find yourself doing status updates that are all about how frustrating your children are, how much you hate being single, or how lame LeBron James is, you're going to find yourself being unfriended. Nobody wants more drama and negativity in their lives, especially when the source is something as unimportant as facebook.
There is a way around this, though, and that is to be hilarious. Or even just mildly amusing.
I have one facebook friend in particular who's great at this. She's constantly complaining but she says things like "At Wal-Mart and wanting to round house kick everyone in the face!!!" Or "Birthday party for the spoiled heathen is done and the kids are finally in bed! Time to bust out the pinot!"
The fact is that if you can make me smile I'm willing to forgive a multitude of sins, even all caps.
"GIFT OF COOKIES = INSTANT FRIENDSHIP"
See? It works because it made me laugh, thus all is forgiven.
I'll continue this later because I have stuff to do and this list is longer than I realized. Peace out, peeps!
First, you don't need to sign your posts or comments. This is a common mistake for older (generally 50+) users who still remember a time when writing to people was civilized and had manners. But the fact is that when you write something like "I love that little picture of you on your profile! You're a beautiful girl! Love, Aunt Gina" you're actually being redundant. This is what we see.
{Your Profile Picture that shows us who you are} Gina Studebaker I love that little picture of you on your profile! You're a beautiful girl! Love, Aunt Gina
You see, we actually know who you are from the start because your profile pic and your full name are automatically put at the start of your comment so you don't have to sign it. But I will say that this is less of a faux pas and more of a sweet older relative/friend thing and it's adorable so if you want to keep doing it go ahead. I'm just saying that you don't have to.
This next one is an actual faux pas. I don't totally understand why people do this (possibly to draw attention to their comment?) but I actually wince when I see it.
The all caps comment.
Everyone has an internal voice with which they read and when we write comments we give certain clues of how the internal voice should sound. When we start a comment with something like the phrase "At least," our internal voice knows that it should sound sarcastic or complaining. Or "Does anyone" immediately signals that this is a question. When you use all caps you are signalling the internal voice to sound angry and loud. For example:
{Profile Pic} Harry Winston DID YOU WATCH THE OFFICE LAST NIGHT? IT'S TOO BAD STEVE CARELL IS LEAVING. I DON'T THINK THAT SHOW WILL BE THE SAME WITHOUT HIM.
It's a pretty mild comment but you can't help thinking that poor Harry is really upset that Steve Carell is leaving the show and that Harry's yelling at you about it. So please, for the sake of us all, cut it out with the caps.
Then there are the people who feel like facebook is a great place to vent their frustration so all they do is whine and complain. Don't get me wrong, everyone complains from time to time on facebook, and if something really is wrong and you need help or if you're trying to keep everyone updated on a bad situation then post away.
But if every time you get on facebook you find yourself doing status updates that are all about how frustrating your children are, how much you hate being single, or how lame LeBron James is, you're going to find yourself being unfriended. Nobody wants more drama and negativity in their lives, especially when the source is something as unimportant as facebook.
There is a way around this, though, and that is to be hilarious. Or even just mildly amusing.
I have one facebook friend in particular who's great at this. She's constantly complaining but she says things like "At Wal-Mart and wanting to round house kick everyone in the face!!!" Or "Birthday party for the spoiled heathen is done and the kids are finally in bed! Time to bust out the pinot!"
The fact is that if you can make me smile I'm willing to forgive a multitude of sins, even all caps.
"GIFT OF COOKIES = INSTANT FRIENDSHIP"
See? It works because it made me laugh, thus all is forgiven.
I'll continue this later because I have stuff to do and this list is longer than I realized. Peace out, peeps!
0 comments:
Post a Comment