How many friends do you have on social media? (200 friends) (350 friends) (500 friends) (2,000 friends) (5,000 friends)
How many of these friends are you having lunch with? How many of these friends do you speak to on the phone? How often do you see these friends? Or are they just a number, accepted to increase your number of likes to a social media post. How many of these friends are actually friends, you know friends that will come and help you move, friends that will check on you when you aren’t feeling well. Some of us who encounter rude behavior on social media only have ourselves to blame because you are more concerned about the number of friends and less concerned about the quality of the friendship.
I’ve always been a bit picky about social media friendships; I actually scan through my friends list once a month to see who is just there, and who I can delete. That may sound rude but it isn’t? Social media has become a place where we post private information and intimate pictures of our families, and our greatest accomplishments. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have 10 likes from people who are actually my friend, people I can count on, and trust. Not people I will have to restrict out of fear they are out to do me harm. By harm I mean people who steal your online identity and create fake pages, people who request your friendship with negative motives, or because they simply want to a new fan.
Below are some of the behavior that should be avoided on social media, as an Image & Etiquette Consultant to children, teens, adults, and professionals I enjoy hearing their stories and experiences that they categorize as rude behavior in the modern times we live in.
Below are a few rude behaviors on social media that should be avoided if you would like to improve your online friendships. This list was created to help you change bad habits. Do not feel bad if you fall in to one or multiple categories in this article. Sometimes we do things unintentionally without realizing it, it’ called being human.
Wanna be celebrities: Don’t treat your friends like your fan; they have fan pages for that. If you have a personal page you should make an effort to support your friends, don’t accumulate 3,000 friends just to improve your like ratio never like or support anything your friends are doing.
Post Thief: It isn’t cool to take a person’s post and re-post it as your own, without giving credit to the originator of the post. Then change your privacy setting to block the originator, if you have friends in common the originator will see what you think you got away with. Just give credit or simply comment “Re-post” so they know you are going to re-post their post instead of sharing which is the polite way to go.
TBT Embarrassments: If you have an embarrassing photo you know a friend disdains with their entire being do not share it with the world. We all have some photos we wish could be burned or buried where no one will ever see them, and our nearest and dearest usually have an entire arsenal of them.
Negative Post: Not everyone wants a slew of negative news and horrific images on their timeline so if you are posting negative things on a constant basis, you may be deleted, or find that your friends rarely like anything you post, or simply avoid you.
Frienemies & Copycats: Yes there are frienemies on social media, they usually ask for friendship you accept because you have friends in common, but then they never speak to you, like anything you do, and ignore you when you like something of theirs. But you know they see your post because they run out and do everything you just did. For example you went to the antique store; they are taking selfies there now and are miraculously an antique collector. Your husband chartered a private boat, now they are on a chartered boat saying how much they love their husband, you went to Thailand and rode an elephant, and they are now in Thailand riding the same elephant, maybe not the exact same elephant but you get the picture. Their goal is usually just to be on your page, to get information about you to compete with you not to truly be friends. Or maybe it’s just a coincidence…
Going Live without permission: Going live on FB without first telling a friend you are recording them could be upsetting and embarrassing for that person. Do not be offended if that person gets upset with you, because you are in the wrong, it’s best to give warning before recording someone.
Chain Mail Senders: Sorry but it is rude, no one wants to receive mail that is meant to intimidate them into sending 20 friends the same message or else they’ll die at sunrise. That is horrible, and will most likely get you deleted, and avoided.
Chronic Game Request: Not everyone is a gamer, but some people are so I get it, you are trying to see who shares your love for a game. But if a person has denied your first 10 game requests, what makes you think they will come around on the 50th request. Sorry but they don’t want to play and you may be deleted!
Stalker Behavior: If you have friends on social media, and you are constantly running out your front door when you see they have checked in somewhere to bump into them “accidentally”, or you like everything they post, I’m talking about every picture, every comment they make, and all their friends comments you are going over board, and you may end up getting deleted, blocked and served with a restraining order.