Social networking sites are an addiction these days.
Earlier we had just one option – Facebook, where we were wasting hours of our lives sharing things with people we never knew and never met. We are now presented with even more options like Instagram where people post everything from how they woke up, what they are having for lunch, who they are eating dinner with, children, vacations, where they live, who they are drinking with and who they are dating and every other minute aspect of their lives.
Most of us have more strangers in our *friend list* than our real friends. Keeping this fact in mind, there should be restrictions on many things we share in social media. Not everything is meant to be shared with everyone.
Here are a few things you should never post online:
1. Screenshots of personal conversations
The smartphone era has accorded us with the ability to screenshot personal conversations which are then shared out on social media. Coming off the recent nasty break up of Kenyan socialite Vera Sidika and musician Otile Brown, it’s clear as day that screenshots of personal conversations are in bad taste. The conversations are ‘PERSONAL’ for a reason. Do not share screenshots of conversations had via text.
2.Relationship details
Exposing your relationship details on social media can be a great thing if everyone could be happy for you but in most instances, it’s a bad move as this gives your followers some entitlement over your relationship and they will go ahead to criticize your relationship, your partner as well as give you bad relationship advice.
3.Children
Children should be a no-no on social media, as they have not chosen to be on these platforms and should not be used to get brand endorsements. Posting children on social media also puts them at risk of bullying, stalking and kidnapping.
4.Personal details
Your personal details should be just that, personal. No one needs to see the exact location of where you live, your national identification number, the exact details of your work unless it’s vital because it helps the business but they should not be posted just for the heck of it.
5.Finances
How much money you make in a day or in a month and how much you bought your car for, should not be for public consumption. Flooding people’s timelines with pictures and videos of you making it rain at the club or at home is not a good look which only does you more harm than the few hundred likes you will get after posting.
6.Explicit content
Social media platforms are public domains and therefore explicit content should not be posted or otherwise face the music like Tanzanian actress Wema Sepetu who was recently banned from acting, arrested and charged in a Tanzanian court after she posted explicit content on Instagram of her and the partner in bed.
7.Firearms
Guns are used for sport and protection but guns are also weapons of destruction and have no place on social media as they can cause panic or attract unnecessary attention towards you. It also puts you at risk of the firearm being stolen and used in a crime which can lead to legal problems. So before gun-toting on social think about what it can all lead to.
8.False or untrue statements about someone
Social media platforms were not made to spread lies, rumors and to defame anyone. Stay clear of posting, retweeting, reposting and sharing harmful statements towards anyone on social media as these statements can attract legal implications such as being charged for defamation.
