Often times we love to post on our favorite social media about the wonderful things going on in our lives. However, we all have that one person (or multiple) on our feeds who post everything in exclamation points! Because life is great! And they just went to the grocery store!

For the love of Gaga, I am not your daily diary. And as someone who journals, I don’t even write that down. Disclaimer: I’m not telling you how to post, but I am giving guidelines for proper conduct as not to annoy your friends (real or virtual).

Speaking of that, do you even know the people you add? I have a strict policy with those whom I accept. My rule is that I must have met the requester in real life or would be willing to go to lunch with them. Otherwise, I see no reason to share my life with you, nor would I be interested to hear about yours (except for those rare gems of people who post things you just simply cannot believe. Those people are few and far between for me).

Don’t air your dirty laundry. It’s all right to be candid, upfront, and honest about the happenings of your world. But we live in a world in which we share too many things; what is sacred to you?

You paint a picture of your life online, but know that everyone can see your entire canvas. And it’s especially embarrassing for those who see the offline artwork you’ve created. But in true social media fashion, I’m not going to point out specific examples; I’ll trade passive aggression for blunt rudeness. That would be embarrassing for the targeted individuals and uncouth of me. Your projection of your life is up to you, but make sure it’s accurate.

I take care to post only positive events in my life. It’s not the whole story, though. If you think for one second that my life is purely hunky dory, you are sorely confused. It’s all in an effort to maintain positivity and deflecting negativity, not to spin things.

This new form of communication and arguably medium of self-expression has the potential for great impact, either positively or negatively. And, being an optimist, I think we have the power to make it very positive.

Moral of the story? I don’t need to know if you had lasagna for dinner, unless Emeril Lagasse prepared it for you.