Social Media: How NOT to Kill Yourself

In the wake of unsavoury social media concerns the last thing we need is another piece of writing that goes on to say as to ‘how the internet isn’t safe anymore’. The internet was never safe. It’s called the world wide web for a reason and everyone who keeps changing profile pictures to as regularly as three meals a day are well aware of their actions. Throughout this piece of writing, we’re going to remind you of a few details that may have conveniently slipped away from your memory while picking out filters or hashtags.

Take Responsibility 

Yes, clichéd. However, most if not all social media websites ask for an age preference due to a premise in the name of ‘maturity’. By stating that you are above the ages of 13, 15 or 18, you also ‘claim’ that you are old enough to take responsibility for your actions. In other words, you know that that scandalous picture of yours while on vacation, on a public profile most likely going to end up in the wrong hands. Unless, you don’t have a problem with that and your face wouldn’t end up in the news.

Remember, no one asked you to post a picture that maybe considered inappropriate. Before we go on to blame those who misuse internet freedom, remember the content has been made available online very consciously, by you. If someone else uploaded it and you are not too rosy above it, drop an email, text, call and state so and it will be removed.

Don’t be a pervert

While all of us are guilty of downloading content that is not legitimately ours, there is a marked difference between the losses you make on a financial statement and on human life. If it doesn’t belong to you, don’t take it. This includes those sexy profile photos of the self-obsessed girl next door. There’s no condoning such behaviour no matter what your argument is.

Resist the Urge

Is it really important to provide daily updates of your morning outfits? Along with #colourful #sunny #Monday #workvibes #nofilter – unless you are a fashion blogger or you’re really, really narcissistic.

Be Yourself

Before your eyes reach the back of your head by the ‘absurdity’ of this, let it first read through the rest of this paragraph. One of the reasons we get on social media is to tell people what we are doing when we are not with them – and mostly to keep in touch with those whom we may not meet as often as we would like to.

This means while you are away in Greenland your friends or followers would like to click on a profile with a selfie and penguins and not on Hannah Montana, Harry Styles and the Teen Wolf bloke. No, substituting Aishwarya Rai for a profile photo isn’t a smart way of doing it, either. It’s not as though in real life one would go around with cut outs of Ms Rai in the place of our face.

Take Precaution

Going old school, life is always a little easier if you just leverage your security settings by maybe just a bit. Perhaps control those who can access your online profiles, pictures and have different passwords for each account. If you are a celebrity reading this, you would have a page already and countless paparazzi pictures flowing about and wouldn’t even need a profile picture change.

Having said all that however, at certain times what happens online is beyond our control. Perhaps, they might just take the face of one person and attach it to another body far different from our own. In circumstances such as that, ask the ‘victim’ for the truth of the story and resolve to let it go as time goes by. Perhaps, it may have been an experiment of a Photoshop newbie. While imposing bans on social media websites and addressing its so-call dangers may be considered required, it would not only be futile but perhaps result in a series of unfortunate events, driven by the excessive publicity granted.