Social media could be damaging your real-life relationships

You’ve had a few shots taken of you and a few friends out together. You think you look great, so you post it to Facebook. Have you thought about what the other people in the photo might think of the photo? What about other friends that weren’t invited to that get-together?

Social media is a great tool to keep connected with friends and family but sometimes there are some unwanted side effects of how you may act online that could be doing some real damage to your real-life relationships.

If we continue with that photo, it’s usually good etiquette to share the photo with a private message to the people in the picture saying “We look good” and if someone comes back with an “Eww, I don’t” then they might not like the photo being posted for everyone to see. If everyone agrees then post away.

Another mistake that a lot of people make is to get on social media when they are mad.

If you are having an argument with someone, you might say something you don’t mean. At least that is between you and them. If you get on social media and you are mad you could type something that a lot of people, see that you either don’t mean or regret later. Experts always agree that if you are mad than exercise should be what you do to calm down. The chemicals released during exercise will level out your emotions.

This one is a hard one if someone shares some news with you or you have some news yourself some people might not want to find out from a generic “Hey everyone” post on social media. This is especially hurtful if the news is a death of a loved one, as some that were close may not have been notified and finding out on social media isn’t the best option.

It’s always a great rule of thumb to treat social media as a tool and not the main point of communication. Face to face, or voice to ear, are always more enjoyable forms of contact.

Have you found yourself in a drama over something you posted on social media? Have you been hurt by something that someone posted?