Twittering Fools
by Candice Watters on 04/06/2009 at 9:30 AM
Proverbs 12:18
There is one whose comments on blogs are like sword thrusts, but the comments of the wise brings healing.Proverbs 14:7
Don't follow the Twitter feed of a fool, for there you do not meet words of knowledge.
Some wise words, with slight updates in italics, from the Book. Such is Joshua Harris's blog post today about what Scripture has to say about our many, rapidly evolving forms of communicating. He writes, "We've all sent an e-mail and forgotten to include the attachment we promise. But have you ever sent the wrong e-mail to the wrong person?"
I'm sure I've done that a time or two. But worse, I think, is writing something in the heat of the moment, only to regret it later. That's especially true when, after the passage of time and the gleaning of more detail, you realize you were missing some important facts.
Just last week Steve was reminding me of the Stephen Covey principle about how humans are the only creatures with the ability to pause between a stimulus acted upon them, and their response to it. Then yesterday, I had the opportunity to do just that. Now that I've had time to cool down, stop crying, pray and think deeply about the troubling circumstance, I'm going to respond. I can assure you my response today will look markedly different from the blathering mess it would have been yesterday!
James 1:19
Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to read, slow to reply all, slow to click send.
1. Rachael said the following at 12:31 PM on Apr 6:
Maybe something that could help with that (self-controlled pause) is purposeful distraction.
My mom recently attempted the distraction technique with me in having me play Boggle with her. Purposeful distraction could be applied to a number of circumstances where we need to bite our tongues/thoughts, and it seems it could be applied to internet communication situations as well.
2. BDB said the following at 1:31 PM on Apr 6:
Indeed.
If you want to praise someone, put it in writing. If you want to chew them out, do it over the phone.
I've read that Abraham Lincoln would write letters in the heat of the moment, then set them aside to cool down before mailing. I've also read that his wife would intercept some of the and destroy them before he could sent them to the intended recipient.
Perhaps blog comments need a "save as draft" function to allow 24 hours before hitting the "post" button.
3. Julie said the following at 12:14 PM on Apr 7:
Thank you, Candice, for this. So very true! May we have to re-learn this lesson about being slow to (speak, hit Send, post, etc) as few times as possible. I know I keep relearning it from time to time even with quite a bit of deliberate self-control on most occasions!
4. BDB said the following at 12:20 PM on Apr 7:
It occurs to me that this is something facebook got right: if you write something on someone's wall, and then realize you probably shouldn't phrase it that way, you can delete it.
I also find it helpful to be able to delete wall posts from my non-Christian FB friends from time to time...watch the language people!
5. Adam Sloope said the following at 6:55 AM on Apr 8:
I think that our culture being more and more connected in what is becoming an electronic instant feedback system, people put less thought into what they say nowadays than in the past. I was told when growing up throughout highschool that I should not write something unless I would not be ashamed for it to be turned into a newspaper article. It is easier for us now to just respond when angry or post some rude comment because we have the opportunity to do so. If we lived back in the day when letters were written we'd all be much more careful I suppose. I think that we should all take heed to Proverbs 18...Morsels go down into the innermost parts and sit, once a word is spoken, especially written it cannot be changed or taken back, only forgiven, and as we all know, forgiveness is hard for us.
6. Mike Theemling said the following at 10:11 AM on Apr 8:
Yes, be hesitant to Tweet impulsively, especially when it can cost you a job.
7. Shannon K said the following at 10:54 AM on Apr 8:
Great comments, Adam (#5)!
I've made a habit of, as I'm typing any comment, asking myself what its purpose is. Will it actually add to the discussion, or am I just writing to vent or because I want other random people to think I'm witty or smart? Re-reading through my comments several times before posting has often led me to change something that was overly wordy or contentious, or even not post the comment at all.
I still have a lot to learn about this, and I cringe when I think of some silly things I've posted in the past. But I think I'm slowly learning to be "slow to reply all, slow to send."
8. Ashley Harris said the following at 4:54 PM on Apr 8:
Speaking of pausing before you hit "send," I just emailed the guy in the cube next to me about doing aerobics after work. I thought I was hitting "reply" to my workout buddy. How embarrassing!
9. BDB said the following at 5:14 PM on Apr 8:
I did have one of my employees accidentally hit "reply all" once. They made a disparaging comment about me.
So, yes, I decided the best thing to do was "reply all" back. It was obvious they didn't mean to send it to me. I actually didn't yell at them or anything. Just a short, pithy comment, so they knew they had just insulted their boss by accident. Then I let them stew until she called to apologize...
Still gave her the raise that year, too. Her review was a "teaching moment."
10. Dan Real-name said the following at 7:45 PM on Apr 8:
I have monitored the AVO Twitter site (Alaska Volcano Observatory) at work several times recently because it actually has something to do with my job, and they were posting updates in a real timely manner. Again, it was job related.