I’ll be honest, I’m not the biggest fan of social media. They began as a means to stay connected with friends and colleagues and allows us to expand beyond our borders. Lately, however, people only use it to whine and complain about the latest movie or political fiasco. It can also harbor creeps and perverts, so I’m careful, especially on Facebook. These are my Facebook rules of engagement.
No Politics or Family Photos
I’ve about had it with people and their political beliefs. They are like opinions and opinions are like assholes. Everyone has one and they all stink. The first Facebook rule of engagement is “Nothing Political”. I didn’t even specify my political stance in my profile.
Actually, I take that last part back. Before “Meta” removed fields from Facebook profiles my “political views” were set to “I AM THE SENATE”; which is the only acceptable value for that field.
It may surprise you that I don’t post family photos. You may see a few pictures of me but you will not see any pictures of my, or anyone else’s children. This goes back to the “creeps and perverts” statement. Perform a Google search for how criminals and pedophiles use Facebook and other social media to prey on children. The results will disturb you!
I also will rarely “check in” or indicate that I’m leaving town for an extended period of time. This has nothing to do with theft (insurance will cover that) but has everything to do with security and vulnerability. If you want to break into my house, I want to be there to greet you …
What Will I Post??
The short answer (if you’re into brevity), is sports and nerd stuff. I rarely post anything public, everything should be only visible to friends and family. Sometimes I actually pull up an incognito tab and go to my Facebook page to make sure I’m keeping things private.
You will always see a link to any blog post I write (such as this one). I will also post the occasional technological tirade (usually targeting Microsoft). It will be rare for me to “like” political posts and I will never share political or hot topic posts. In fact, I’ve been known to hide posts and I’ve even muted friends and family for 30 days. I have no interest in anybody’s political or social crusade.
I am working on a way to be able to share photos in a more safe and secure fashion. This only applies to photos with faces. I will post photos from a vacation or event but none of them will be group shots.
Those are my rules.