Words and Hometown Headlines

A couple days ago I read a blog where the writer complained bitterly about sister and parents. And I've recently read blogs where complaints and criticisms were aimed at spouses or other family members.

I'd like to make this suggestion to help you avoid embarrassment just in case your family members, friends or coworkers know where to find you on the web. (You can call it a "rule" if you want to...but some folks rebel against "rules", so let's call it a suggestion instead. You can take it or leave it, makes no matter to me.)

Here it is...

Think Twice before making nasty or critical comments about friends, or family or fellow employees on your blog. You are not quite as anonymous behind your computer screen as you might think and words cast out into the wild beyond may come back to haunt you.

To adapt an old adage our grandmothers used to use, "If you wouldn't want to see your words on the front page of the local newspaper, don't post it on the web." (That applies also to those unmentionable photos of yourself that you really wouldn't want your grandmother to see....just moments before she's taken to the hospital with a heart attack!)

Sure, most of us need to vent now and then. And perhaps you have someone about whom you really, really need to unload before you explode. So if that is the case, pull up a new word doc on your PC, type out all your anger, your angst, your anguish. Read it through twice (or thrice if you're really steaming).

Then hit Delete.

You will not be sorry.