How to Have a Better Facebook Experience

When I was about four, I said something I shouldn’t have. My mama gave me a spanking (to help me concentrate LOL) and told me to “think before you speak.”
Over the next 60 years, she repeated those words to me many, many times. “Think before you speak!” Indeed!
When I was six, she found something I had written that was ugly and showed it to me. I was embarrassed. She said, “Don’t write anything down unless you’d like to have it published on the front page of the newspaper!” I was only six, mind you, but that’s what she said! I never forgot that.
When I went to the LSU School of Journalism, Prof. Nick Plasterer said, “There are many important rules of writing, editing, and publishing, and we’re going to spend most of four years teaching them to you. But the most important rule is this: When in doubt, leave it out!”
Your instincts will probably tell you that you are about to make a mistake in writing something. Listen to your instincts. If they are telling you this is a bad idea, listen! It probably is much worse than you think!
Someone once told me, “You may look a fool, but why speak and remove all doubt?” Hmmm. That’s pretty good!
If you really don’t know what you’re talking about, why expose that fact to thousands of people?
Ridicule and sarcasm are poison. Avoid them like the plague. Being curt and mean-spirited only reveals the personality problems of the curt, mean-spirited writer.
Remember, you have every right to unfriend or ban from your page and your life anyone that brings you down. So there’s no need to put up with people who misuse Facebook.
Okay, those are some things to avoid. But on the positive side, how can we make our experience on Facebook better? “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you!” The Golden Rule! It applies to all of us all the time, even on Facebook! I think of my friends on Facebook as a group of us sitting at my kitchen table. It’s a time for fellowship, an exchange of information, and inspiration. It’s a great chance to build friendships and grow in our knowledge and enjoyment of life. If we think of Facebook as all of us sitting at the kitchen table in one of our homes, it is a very different experience. We treat them with the respect we would if they were guests in our home.
When people have other ideas about Facebook and misuse it, I send them personal messages and try to clear up misunderstandings. Often, people are totally opposite in their messages than in their posts. They can be mean as fire in their posts but sweet and kind in their personal lives and in their messages.
Reach out to the real person in messages in order to resolve differences or smooth things over. Why can’t we be kind in our posts and comments? Of course we can! That doesn’t mean we can’t disagree and disagree strongly.
On Facebook, minds are almost never changed by critical comments, rude remarks, or back-and-forth tit-for-tat exchanges. But thoughtful, intelligent, respectful and pleasant exchanges present the opportunity to learn and grow. “When in doubt, leave it out!” Yes, a great rule. And it also applies to mistakes we made in the past.
When something is printed in the newspaper, you can make a retraction or an apology, but things are never quite the same. But on Facebook, you can go back and delete a post that you made that was ill-conceived or mean. Just go back and hit delete! I can say this about Facebook: I have never regretted going back and deleting an inappropriate post or comment. There’s actually something very liberating about it. It’s a way to say, I was a wrong, will you forgive me? And most people will. “Think before you speak!” Yes, mama, I will!