A Much-Needed, Overdue Guide to Social Media Manners

I realize that this is about a day late, but after a whole day of ignorant Facebook statuses, it became obvious that someone needed to write a guide to how to behave during campaign season on social media. This is only the second presidential election we’ve had since the creation of Facebook, Twitter, and who knows what else. So I will try to be the Emily Post of social media, and do us all a favor.

Rule #1

Check facts. Both Republicans and Democrats posted things everywhere that were completely untrue. Extremist views will never be taken seriously by anyone with any common sense. Which leads to Rule #2..

Rule #2:

Realize that a facebook status is more than likely not going to change anyone’s mind. What it will do is lead to unnecessary arguments via facebook comments with people that you barely know.

Rule #3

Politics and Religion are the two topics that are generally considered off-limits with people you don’t know well. These are the topics that are most likely to cause argument, so no need to do it with people you don’t already know. With your family and friends, it’s a different story; they already know and like you. However, I doubt that most of your Facebook friends are so close to you. 

Rule #4

This is important. Win gracefully. If the candidate you support wins, there is a nice way to celebrate via social media. Usually this is something simple, like “Yay ____!” or just a simple, short celebration that their vote was for the winning candidate. It does not include things like rubbing in the win, or making tongue in cheek remarks about the other candidate. You already won, you should celebrate rather than trying to make the other side angry. This is called bipartisanship. Something we should all strive to learn more about.

Rule #5

Lose gracefully.  Because of the time difference, I missed the actual news coverage (I tried to stay up, really, but it was too late here). When I woke up early to check the results, I was appalled by the number of people who said that the world was ending, the people who said the US was going to hell, and the otherwise ridiculous exaggerations. It’s normal to be sad when your candidate loses, but seriously? It made me embarrassed to know people who would say such things.

Rule #6

Understand how the system works. In the US, we have a system of checks and balances. The president doesn’t have ultimate power; this is how we prevent dictatorships. We have the legislative and judicial branches as well; didn’t anyone pay attention in US history class? The president is more of a figurehead than anything. I’m not saying it’s not important, but the country will not collapse into Communism without the support of the other branches.

Rule #7

This one is just for everyone else’s sake. Please use correct grammar and spelling. It doesn’t take that long to spell check; just do it! You embarrass your fellow party members when you write grammatically incorrect posts about a candidate. And please, please, please don’t say “I could care less”. This is one of my biggest pet peeves; it’s a useless statement. “I could NOT care less” is what you were trying to say; “I could care less” simply says that in fact, you could care even less than you do, which is the opposite of what you’re trying to say.

Rule #8

This goes along with fact-checking, I suppose, but deserves its own rule. To  those of you who are moving to Canada, Australia, Europe, etc., do you know anything about their governments? They’re far more socialized than the US, with universal health care and many more welfare programs. In fact, the US is the most conservative first-world country in the world. Just food for thought.

Rule #9

This should go without saying, but apparently not. If you didn’t vote, don’t complain. Ever. You forfeited your right to choose. Also, I wouldn’t admit it online; you will lose all respect and credibility with most of us.

Rule #10

Most importantly, no matter who wins, you must accept that he/she is your President. I told Paolo as soon as I found out that I would far rather have Obama prove me wrong and do a great job, than to be right and have things worsen. No matter who had won, there would still be about 50% of people against him, but that’s democracy. We chose our leader; now it’s time for him to do his part of the deal.

Anyways, I hope that our country can prosper and do well, and more than anything, I hope that Americans will work together to succeed. We’ve become so split into our political parties that I almost feel like we’re behind enemy lines. If we want progress, we have to come together. I think that Romney had some really great ideas for economic recovery, and I hope that all of those ideas are not just completely ignored because they came from a Republican. He was a businessman, after all.

In the future, I hope that people will learn to be nicer to each other and respect the fact that people have different views. As nice as it would be for everyone to just like me, I realize that it can’t and won’t happen. Social media is a relatively new outlet for people to express ideas, and maybe in the future we can learn to control our words a bit more. Probably not, it’s human nature.. but seriously, you guys almost put me in early labor as I was reading through everyone’s comments this morning from both sides. Let’s all be mature, and remember that America is still a great, free country. Never forget all that our forefathers fought for, and never take these things for granted.

I promise this is my last political rant for awhile; there are too many other things on the horizon to talk about right now. Like the fact that this afternoon, I’m going for my consultation with an anesthesiologist for an epidural talk. That’s right, I gave in already. My doctor told me there was no reason to be a hero, and if it makes me feel better, do it. So there you go, I’m a big wuss. Also, she predicted he’ll come as early as November 15, so yes, that’s next week. No big deal. Paolo and I start childbirth class tonight (a little late, I know), which should be interesting since 1. it’s in Italian, I’ll understand niente, and 2. many things are done differently here. So we’ll see. And finally, here’s my latest homemade attempt at maternity photos, thanks Pinterest for the idea.





 

Ciao for now,

Kathleen