Proper (Tweeting) Manners

Now we have a new means of communication, called "Tweeting." 

Here's how I understand it: Tweeting is instant communication with another person or persons. It's like, well, a party-line. Yep, us with some gray around the edges or all even all over, back in the day we remember party lines on phones.

Well, they're back! Full circle!

You send brief messages to someone, another tweeter(s) you are hooked up with and talk in snippets or short sentences back and forth.

But, like with Facebook, beware! Once sent, a Tweet is out there forever. So let me give you some rules to live by — be it Tweeting or Facebook — that I found helpful and I hope you do too from a Christian perspective.

Ethically, Christians must think of Twitter no differently than other forms of speech. The Biblical instructions concerning one’s words broadcast from the mouth apply also to words broadcast over social media. Try reading James 3:1-12, and replace each instance of the word “tongue” with “Tweet.”

While Twitter etiquette is still at its dawn, I offer my simple seven rules for Tweeting with class, not the kind you go to, but with class:

1. Venting your petty frustrations only frustrates others. 
2. Say what builds up, not tears down.
3. Tweet  “such is life” moments.
4. Resist the urge to make Twitter your personal sermon to the world. 
5. If you wouldn’t share it in a room full of people at a casual event, then don’t post it on Twitter. 
6. If, when in public, you don’t say, “Mr. So-and-So said I’m awesome and smart,” then, when on Twitter, also refrain from it. 
7. Keep personal conversations personal. 

A common thread runs through these rules: Twitter is a semi-public space, and Tweeting is the equivalent of saying something very loudly in a large room full of people with whom you have varying degrees of relationship.

Don’t Tweet what you wouldn’t say in that room. Rather, “give grace to those who hear” (Ephesians 4:29). There you have it.

But here's an event more important rule with social media: DON'T DRIVE AND DO IT. If you must Tweet, pullover and do it safely...the butt you save, may be your own! Pastor Kaye +