We’ve all heard the advice. If you post something negative on social media expect it to come back to bite you in the butt. We’ve even been told that if you tweet something like “I’m depressed”, a future employer could look it up and pass you over for the job. We’ve been fed dire warnings and fear from the media, our friends and even our caring family.
I’m going to say the opposite. If you want to write a melodramatic post about feeling left out, you should. And I have two very good reasons why you should write these negative thoughts out and display them for the public.
Number one is that writing these words helps you more than it hurts others. The reason you write is to clarify your own thoughts for your well being. This is nothing to sneeze at. If a future employer sees this as something that makes you a bad candidate, I seriously don’t think you’d want that job regardless.
Number two, this advice is missing the whole point of Social Media. It’s all about connecting to other people. If you are always playing the slick cat who doesn’t have any faults, then you won’t really connect with anyone. By showing your own faults, you bring others into your inner circle, you invite them in. This is scary as hell, but I promise the more you do it the better it feels and the more you connect with others. Others who might have the same feelings of anxiety, doubt and regret.
The only warning I would tack onto this is to be respectful to others. We all have feelings and desires and fears. I wouldn’t go blaming a colleague for your bad day on social media, but by all means say you’re frustrated but decline to tell the specifics.
How are you feeling today? Tweet me @SomniaStellarum and I’ll lend an ear and a kind word. Maybe you’ll do the same to someone else down the road.