Facebook post reads, “I am so unhappy right now! I feel like the world is on my shoulders and I have no one to help. This sucks!”
This woman had a bad day at WORK. She’s also married.
She comes home and her husband tells her he wants her to remove the post. “But why? I was just venting about a bad day at work! What’s the big deal?”
He asks, “How do you think that makes me look?” The wife ponders for a moment and realizes what her husband is talking about.
I have to admit that marriage and social media etiquette is something I’ve known about for a long time. I’d often counsel my married friends on how certain posts looked… Such things can be easily interpreted as “trouble in paradise” whether it’s true or not.
You’d be surprised at how many people are out there just WAITING for something to go wrong in your relationship. And if they don’t know what’s going on in your relationship, they’ll assume.
You may be thinking, “OK. Why is this MY problem?” Well, it should be your concern for a few reasons:
1) You are a representative of your marriage. If people knew where you worked and you wrote a post that gives the impression you hate the company you work for… That assumption may cause trouble for you at work as it would in your marriage.
2) As a representative of your marriage, you can’t willingly give people a reason to find a “weakness” and prey on your feelings or your spouse’s feelings.
3) Advertising unhappiness in such a way gives people the impression that you are unhappy and possibly available.
And NEVER EVER share problems in your marriage with your social media audience. Once it’s out there and people have seen it, it has potential to be in people’s minds forever. No one has a place in your marriage but you and your spouse. No one should ever have “intel” on your marriage. The more information people have, the more they can meddle and play on insecurities that YOU have made available to them.
Am I suggesting that you spot check posts with your spouse? Absolutely not. You do, however, have to be very mindful of the information you put out there. The reality is that you represent TWO people now, not just one. And that union is worthy of your attention and protection.
As always, thank you for reading, “I do? I do.”
Watch this hilarious clip on how social media can destroy relationships for the overly sensitive.