Top Ten Worst Times to Tweet

Twitter, the microblogging darling, allows you, me, anyone to update anyone who will listen. Tweeting under the wrong conditions can be embarrassing at least and disastrous at worst. I am guilty of most of these offenses, and this is more of a learn from my mistakes post than a high and mighty do and don’t list. Even today I deleted posts that I should have never written. So with a little insomnia, here’s my top ten times to avoid twitter:

1. Tweeting under the influence: be it cough syrup, wine, or a muscle relaxer. Bad idea. Same goes for fatigue. Being tired is an altered state for me.
2. Tweeting at the beginning/end of a relationship. (Same goes for tweeting during dates. They can go south or turn around and get better in the blink of an eye.)
3. Tweeting while angry or upset. Don’t say anything you’ll regret. 140 characters isn’t going to cover it anyway. Pull out your paper journal instead.
4. Tweeting and driving. Your real-time traffic updates scare me sometimes, folks. If you can tell me someone is tailgating you, please be in the passenger seat.
5. Tweeting while feeling below average about yourself. Twitter is not a good place when you are feeling low self-esteem.
6. Tweeting about work in a way that shows your disregard or dislike of your clients or customers. It sounds judgmental and unhappy.
7. Tweeting when work sucks. Do you like your job? Maybe not. Do you want to keep it? Probably. See also http://ciscofatty.com/
8. Tweeting something you wouldn’t say to someone’s face. Ugh. Feels so much easier to just put it out there on this a public forum rather than pick up the phone and say it to you??
9. Tweeting when you are in a social situation where others aren’t doing the same. I am terribly guilty of this.
10. Tweeting when you have nothing to say. Not time to just make something up. Take a couple deep breaths and try a yoga pose. Get out a take a walk. Cut up some fruit. Find something else to do.

Everybody has a rough patch here and there. I hope that my past offenses are not too egregious. When I am feeling rough on myself, I try to remember the following quote:

Finish each day and be done with it. You have done what you could. Some blunders and absurdities no doubt crept in; forget them as soon as you can. Tomorrow is a new day; begin it well and serenely and with too high a spirit to be encumbered with your old nonsense.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson

Image by by Mykl Roventine & iPotion