I am plugged in. I mean, excessively plugged in. Without social media, I would never be able to be successful in my career field, or be able to stalk my college friends who have since moved away after undergrad. That being said, there is a mutual and silent understanding of social media etiquette and unfortunately, we are all responsible for breaking these cardinal rules at one point or another. Here are five times we have all embarrassed ourselves on social media.
1. Jumping the Gun
Who is guilty of posting huge announcements on social media? *entire world raises their hand* These days our friend groups can span the United States, if not the world. It is the fastest way to spread news and get coverage. However, you should make sure you indeed got the job, the ring, or the acceptance letter before you announce it all over your platforms. You don’t want to be like my unnamed undergrad classmate who instantly posted about being accepted into grad school without reading the entire email. Turns out, they decided against enrollment shortly after reading the fine print. Of course, not before receiving 300+ likes. Yikes.
2. Thinking We Look Trendy When We Don’t
Everyone is their own movie star or A-List celeb with social media. I could get sucked into sliding through fashion accounts for hours. I’ve spent time I can never get back marveling over near perfect photography and color schemes that can never be replicated. So, we spend hours trying to mimic these photos ourselves. Hours taking group selfies to get the perfect, glazed-donut lighting to glint across our now non-existent cheekbones and think, “this must be quality work.” I assure you, you are wrong. Very wrong. And I promise, no one cares about your attempts to be trendy.
3. Oversharing and Ranting
We all have that one Facebook friend from high school that goes on an illiterate, 5th grade-reading level rant about God knows what, usually something political that they have no idea about. We laugh at their incompetencies and praise our privilege and education…only to shortly after become experts on social media about things like gun laws, piss poor presidential candidates, and gorilla enclosures. I promise you, for every excessively wordy sentence you use to support your claims, there are double the people are out there skimming your sh*t and rolling their eyes.
4. #ManCrushMondays and Kissing Pics
Oh you’re still dating? Stellar. I wouldn’t have known without your weekly MCM’s to keep me updated on your personal life. When you breakup, be sure to make it extra awkward when you go through and delete all the pictures from your account. And your candid kissing pictures…did the photographer throw up before or after you subjected them to that sort of torture? Let’s not and say we did, folks.
5. Selfie with the Subtle Cleavage Slip
I get feeling yourself. I find myself attractive about 90% of the time. So when I see a quality selfie, I’ll give it some love. What you should refrain from, though, is the selfie with the not-so subtle cleavage shot. No one forgets they have boobs, and nothing screams “intentional” like a selfie with a big ol’ buttcrack on your chest.
We have all gone against the unspoken rules of social media at one point or another. If you found you related to most of the points, it’s not too late to erase the evidence.
Except for the fact you can never truly erase past social media faux-pas (bless up for screenshots).
Featured image via Julie Aagaard on Pexels
