4 questions to ask yourself before you post a comment online –
What we're covering..
Introduction 👋
Whether it’s:
- Messaging friends privately 🤫
- Commenting on posts in front of others💬
- Tagging someone on a post 🏷️
- Sharing a post 📩
people post comments all the time. 📬
If you post comments and send messages all the time, it’s easy to forget the impact that our comments can have.
Your comments online can impact:
- Your reputation 😎
- Relationships
- What people think of you 🧠
- Whether you get a job or not
- How others feel about themselves 💔
This makes it really important to think before you post comments – to avoid them having a negative impact on your life. 👎
Here are our top 4 questions to ask yourself, before you post a comment online!
1. Will this hurt them? 😔
When you post a comment online, it can often feel like nobody is watching, or that what you say will disappear into the hundreds of comments online.
In reality, everything you say online matters. ⚠️
People care what you think, and will read what you say. 👀👀
The things that you say to people online, can have a huge impact on their emotions. 😟
As humans we tend to focus on negativity. 👎
This means that someone could receive 100 compliments, but if you leave just one mean comment, they’ll probably remember your one mean comment over everything else. 🧠
So, before you post a comment, ask yourself:
- Will this hurt them?
- How would I feel if the other person hurt themselves after reading my comment? 💔
- Could the other person misunderstand what I’ve written, and get upset?
- How would I feel if someone said the same thing to me? 🙊
- Is it a good idea to say something negative or hurtful?
2. Could this impact me getting a job? 💼
Did you know that the things you post online, could have a huge impact on you getting work? 💼💻
If you’re applying for a job recruiters will look you up online – including your personal social media profiles. 👀👀🔎
If you’re running your own business, customers will look you up online. 👀👀🔎🔎
What they see/read about you online (your online reputation) could make or break your career. 💔🏆
So, before you post, ask yourself:
- Will this help my online reputation, or hurt it?
- How would I react if my comment was brought up in a job interview? 👩💼
- Could an employer misunderstand what I’ve written, and judge me badly for it?
3. Will this get me into an argument? 😠
We all know what it’s like, you see a comment or message that triggers you – suddenly you spend the whole night arguing online! 👿
Don’t fall into the trap! 🪤
Online arguments can cause you:
- Stress 🥴
- Anxiety
- Sleepless nights 🛌
- Fear every time your phone notifications go off
Whilst it can initially feel really frustrating seeing triggering comments, often it’s easier (and better for your mental health) to just scroll on by.
Try not to let them upset you! 🥷
Sometimes it’s better to protect yourself from the stress of arguing, than to argue with people online. 💖
4. Could this make me unsafe? 🔓
The more you know about someone, the easier it is to scam them or hurt them. 😈
Information is the most valuable thing to a scammer! 📖
Scammers want to know as much about you as possible, to make you easy to scam.
They’ll want to know things like:
- Your full name
- Age 👶
- Gender
- Address 🏡
- Birthday
- Passwords 🔗
- Where you were born
- Phone number📱
- Email address
- Job title 👩💼
- Social media handles
- Family and friend information 👪
- Relationship status
- Passport information 🌎
- Holidays
- Pet names 🐕
- Schools/education
- Bank details 🏦
- Loan details
- Health 👩⚕️
- Location
- Favourite food 🍕
- How much money you make
- Favourite music 🎵
- What car you’ve got
- Favourite animal 🦁
All of this information could be used to help scam you! 🕵️♀️
And where is the easiest and best place to find information about people?
Online! 💻
A lot of scammers will use the internet and social media to find out as much as possible about you.
It’s common for scammers to use social sites/apps like:
- Tiktok
- Snapchat
- Tinder (or other dating sites)
- Messenger
So, before you post a comment online, ask yourself these questions:
- Am I sharing too much information about myself? 🙊
- Does my comment help someone who wants to scam me?
- Could someone find my location from my comment? 🗺️
- How many people can see this comment – could they be scammers?
Conclusion 👍
So that’s it!
Before you post comments online, you should ask yourself these questions:
- Will this hurt them?😔
- Could this impact me getting a job?💼
- Will this get me into an argument?😠
- Could this make me unsafe?🔓
If you know any friends or family members who might benefit from learning about thinking before they post comments online, share this post with them!
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