Long ago, I wrote a blog about my rather conservative views on what sharing updates in public (read social media). However, there was a time before that that I did not exercise much restraint. I have grown to believe that social media is not the channel for communicating with people, albeit it is a more effective one-to-many medium.
This is not to say that general conversations need to be avoided. I do post about my religious, personal and professional thoughts and have debates and discussions with others. And yes change profile picture once in a while. For anything else, there is a phone, SMS/Whatsapp, or tete-a-tete. If I want to share my vacation pictures, I prefer sending it to the close circle through mediums other than Facebook and Instagram.
Here is a general rule that I would strongly advocate. If you have dirty linen to launder, do not do that in public and never ever in social media.
My belief strengthened after I had to act as a sounding board for a friend. I will not get into the story in detail. Here is a quick snapshot. My friend had a small skirmish with a colleague. Agitated she posted the event without revealing the name of the other person. Things got only worse thereafter for her at the workplace. Not only was the bridge burnt with the colleague but also she almost was ostracized from the social circle.
Mahatma Gandhi's Three Monkeys serve as a good guiding principle for everyone in social media. I doubt we can stop seeing bad things and hear bad things; we surely can stop saying bad things on the social media. For our own good.
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