UNITED STATES—I wish I could understand so many people’s obsession with social media. However, I just don’t get it. For some reason, it seems like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, Tumblr and so many other platforms to showcase their life or express their public opinion. We all know the news of the week, were the remarks that President Donald Trump echoed over the weekend. Look, we can have endless debates about what Trump said, but what I will point out is if you’re going to make a bold statement that is apparently geared towards specific people, you might want to do your homework before clicking send.

That is the thing I’m realizing more and more about social media: people don’t think before they type. It’s like this impulse takes over their body, they can’t control themselves and immediately have diarrhea of the mouth and then attempt to backtrack after the fact. Um, too little too late people! This is why social media is dangerous, it gives this massive platform where everyone says how they truly feel and think with no regret or thought process behind the statement.

It’s no secret that we all know that social media allows the cowards to hide behind a keyboard as they post and say things that they would never say to a person’s face. The internet allows some people to hide, but there are those who can give zero f*** about the situation and are not afraid to make it known. I respect those individuals because you can tell they have nothing to hide and aren’t afraid to show their picture, location and any other personal details about them.

We live in this weird world nowadays where so many people communicate and connect via social media and that’s a great thing. The backlash is social media can create a hate-fueled ideology that just never ends. You say something, this person says something and the back and forth continues to go along for days, weeks or months to come. Stop airing your dirty laundry all over social media; you don’t have to put all your secrets, ideologies and everything else for the entire world to consume it.

Go ask a person right now if they have the app for Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and so many other apps on their phones or tablets? It might be impossible for you to find someone who doesn’t have social media glued to their side. Ready to tweet, post or chat about something that has caused internet buzzing. Here is a vital rule of thumb about social media, just because you want to respond to something doesn’t mean you should do it immediately.

Take a moment, collect your thoughts, put something into words that provides clarity, is grammatically correct and presents your stance in a way that is not overly aggressive, rude or just nasty. Some people don’t care, they have no regrets, but years from now, that tweet or post that you made can totally come back to haunt you in ways that you never imagined. Social media is a great thing, but it can also have drawbacks that some people never expected. Careful, you are always being watched America, even if you think you’re not.

Written By Zoe Mitchell