If there’s one rule every person in comedy should know is who his audience is and what material he should and shouldn’t share in his act. Even the slightest slip of the tongue can land some well-meaning entertainers in some piping hot water. If you’re performing at a fundraiser for a women’s shelter, would you really think it’d be a good idea to make the same jokes you told at the frat mixer? I wouldn;t think so. But I don’t believe this notion should stop with just comedians and stage performers.
One of the beauties of social media is that we have more leverage to think about what we say before we put it out. You have time to analyze every tweet, comment, meme, etc before you hit that send button. This is a luxury that too many people foolishly take for granted. We can go back and delete it after the fact, but it only takes a split second for someone to copy and paste it into infinity. Best case scenario, it was just some mundane spelling error that only nit-picky grammar people will notice. Or it could be that selfie you took last night at the club after over indulging in margaritas.
Social media also comes with a few hassles as well. Many of us have friends and followers by the hundreds, maybe even in the thousands. They can vary from your best friends, your parents, that old lady down the street that loves you like a grandchild, the list goes on. They come from different ways of thinking and ways of living. Maybe most of them share your own views and opinions, but they may eventually change those perspectives over time. in a way, it’s like a stage where millions of people are potentially watching. And with this being an election year, the odds of you rubbing someone the wrong way just quadrupled. So while you may have gotten a group of 10 people to like that witty comment, 10 others just unfriended you. And among those 10 might be someone you really care about that you’ve offended.
You can never be too careful about what you choose to broadcast to the world. Even though I’ve always been against the principle of political correctness, I still find myself censoring myself quite a bit on my facebook. Certain words I know might offend some people are either abbreviated or blanked while some I just don’t use altogether. Not because I’m trying to be safe, but I’m trying to be respectful of those who may not be okay with such things. After all, your social media etiquette says just as much about your character as your page itself.
So whenever you’re about to tweet or post or whatever, just take a second to think. Is this post worth losing a special friend? if it’s intended for a specific person of group, PM it to them or customize it so only they see it. You spend 80% of your time on it anyway, so why not take the time to use them properly.
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