Rules for Social Media

17 Jul 2022

I’m not on many social media platforms these days. I like it like that. I mostly follow some academics and people who post interesting stuff. I post only occasionally, usually to show off my recent hiking exploits. I’ve come up with some rules for myself (all subject to change) about what I post.

A post must meet all the following criteria:

• It must be positive and uplifting.

  There’s enough that’s negative on the internet. Don’t add to it.

• It must be interesting

  I’m a bad judge of this sometimes; I don’t want to be that schmuck who’s posting drivel for the sake of posting. Sorry if that happens.

• No politics.

  I’ll make a few exceptions here and there, but as a general rule I don’t like posting about politics. I do follow some people that I find interesting for political reasons; that expressly does not mean that I agree with all or any of their views. I will post mostly about technology, academics, jokes, and hiking.

  Why no politics? I try to keep my views nuanced. It is fantastically difficult to convey any degree of nuance in a tweet or two. If I do have something I feel strongly about, I’ll post about it in my personal section of my blog so I can write something in long-form, but that’s it.

I won’t post often, but when I do, I’ll try to make sure it meets a high bar of quality. I’m not out to get more followers or anything—I have just had some really good interactions online, and I want to filter for that. Fighting trolls can be fun, but is ultimately unproductive and uninteresting.