Publish wisely
Underneath your status update window, there’s a little arrow. Click on that, and Facebook lets you decide who gets to read your status update and who it’s hidden from. It’s great for planning surprise parties and insulting people behind their backs. You can even set a new default for all of your status updates going forward.
Also—and this applies double to everyone under eighteen—before you post something, think about it for a few seconds. Maybe write it down on a little piece of paper and look at it before you even type it into the status update window. Try pinning it to the wall, and imagine it hanging outside the door to your office or dorm room. Would you hang it up there? Are you sure you want everyone in the world to hear what you’re about to say? Do your parents and employers need to know whatever it is you have to declare about boobs, weed, Four Loko, and/or throwing up? Does the person you’re about to insult have access to your feed (because as subtle as you think you’re being—you’re not)? Let’s all try working together to raise the level of discourse here by just considering, for five seconds, what we’ve typed before we hit that “Update” button.