The consequences of over-sharing on social networking sites can sometimes land you in hot water, and in serious cases can even lead to you being in trouble with the police.
So ask yourself, ‘Should I have tweeted that?’ or ‘should I be tweeting this?’
There are consequences, so here is a few examples of things you should avoid tweeting about…
Inviting Twitter to the Party
Your parents are away and you’ve got the house to yourself for the night. You might have thought of having a couple of people over or perhaps your friends have convinced you to have a small ‘gathering’ of people from school. However, putting an invitation out there on social media can unfortunately end pretty badly.
A girl created a Facebook invite for her 16th birthday party in 2012. Having not made it private, lo and behold, 30,000 people turned up to a small village in Holland to celebrate in what was dubbed a ‘Project X’ style party, ending in riots and several party-goers injured.
Although this is an example of one of the more extreme cases, party invites do tend to be extended to friends of friends of friends, so if you are planning to get people together make sure you invite the ones you trust and stress an invite-only policy if word spreads. It’s best to stay clear of promoting your get-together on Twitter or Facebook entirely and remember to get your parents’ permission first or you might be in a lot of trouble!
Tweeting About Your Boss
Your Twitter account might be private and you may not mention where you work or follow any of your colleagues, but still the consequences of that one complaint can result in disciplinary action, or worse depending on how severe the situation is.
Remember, your followers can still quote your tweet or you might have forgotten that someone you work with follows you and could have passed it on.
With this one it’s best not to tweet at all about work troubles. If you are experiencing problems at work, make sure you speak to your manager or someone in your company’s HR department so that the issue can be resolved.
Drinking on a School or Work Night
Similar to the example above, although it can be tempting to go out with friends after a long day at work, doing so and then tweeting about it the next morning when you’re supposed to be working would be unwise.
If you’re feeling tired or hungover from the previous night’s shenanigans and it is affecting your motivation and ability to work, this could lead to serious issues with your employer.
Guilty of the Over-Share
If you’re chosen for jury duty, chances are you’ll be bursting to tell people about your day(s) in court, people may even ask you to spill all the juicy details. However, once you are a juror you can only discuss the trial in the jury room when all the jury are present.
It is a criminal offence, and a serious one at that, for anyone to try to obtain information from a juror about any matters discussed by the jury surrounding a case, even after a trial has ended.
It is also an offence for anyone outside your jury to try and influence you about the case. If someone were to approach you about the case, you should tell someone immediately.
Tweeting or sharing your own verdict anywhere online, regardless of whether it’s true or not, will not be taken lightly by court officials or the police, so don’t risk it!
Would you like to find out more about what we offer and range of Modern Apprenticeships? We would love to speak to you! Call 01355 698 011 to get started.