The Facebook Etiquette Rules. | Teen Ink

The Facebook Etiquette Rules.

September 5, 2009
By Rachhhhh BRONZE, Cherry Hill, New Jersey
Rachhhhh BRONZE, Cherry Hill, New Jersey
3 articles 0 photos 0 comments

Facebook. Most of us use it on a daily basis, and we all interact with other people through it. However, did you ever give a second thought as to what they meant? Did you ever consider what each action meant?

The Facebook Etiquette Rules:

1. A 'wall to wall' conversation basically means that the social terf even. Back and forth. 50/50, or whatever. Shows a certain amount of consideration.

2. Commenting on a wall post (which happens to be one of the stupidest things about Facebook in my opinion) is the subconscious desire to fill up ones own wall with as much as possible, making the other person have less on their own wall. Too much of this can lead to people thinking the wall owner is a "Facebook W****" but I'll explain that later.

3. 'Liking' a photo, which is basically putting one's own stamp of approval, is subtle, while commenting it usually has more meaning and sometimes represents familiarity between the photo's owner, and the commenter. Liking too many things lacks sincerity.

4. Making yourself online and available to chat using the lame instant messenger Facebook provides is keeping the door open for lines of communication. However, if one is available too much, it lessens the desire for someone to say, "oh my god! he/she is never on! I should say hello" and such. Basically, if you "flood the market" there really isn't much demand, is there?

5. Keeping yourself offline decreases socialization through instant messaging. That isn't bad, it's just a choice. What's worse, is having a conversation through wall posts while both parties are available to chat instantly. Represents the lack of comfort.

6. New members to Facebook are great. But new members, especially ones that haven't used a social networking site before, tend not to know the general unspoken rules about what is acceptable on Facebook, and what isn't. Commenting on everyone's pictures- even people who you do not know or are not friendly with isn't appreciated by most. Even worse than that, is throwing your opinion in places where it isn't needed. Proceed with caution.

7. Every so often, there comes a time where two or more opinions clash. This tends to happen within photo comments, particularly on photos with many people tagged, or controversial photos such as people smoking or drinking. People comment back and forth arguing about nonsense and at times, calling each other names or getting into debates. Sometimes, more people start to join in, creating a load of this "Facebook drama" Best thing to do is stay out of it!

8. Tagging people is a way to label who and where each person is within a picture. This is simple. However, some genius decided to create a picture-graphic that reads, "The Funny One" or "The Slow One" in which the owner can tag their friends as each little character to represent these traits. I find it undeniably tacky. However, for the people who partake in these- be careful who you might offend. I myself was tagged as, "Cutie Pie" and even though that's a compliment, I felt pretty offended based on the dude who it was coming from. There's also spin-offs of these, like Pokémon and such. It's all the same honest-to-goodness garbage.

9. Applications are usually fun. But in the case of Facebook, it's something I do my best and avoid. Things like 'Top Friends' and 'Best Friend Contest' and 'Most Lovable Person' basically insist you rank or nominate your friends in some kind of numerical order. It's like saying to your friend, "hey i like you and everything but you only rank number five because i like these other four people better"

10. Quizzes. My oh my. You could probably spend hours with these. There's everything from "when will you get pregnant?" to "what's your ghetto nickname?" to "what is the first initial of the person you love?" and honestly, it's all garbage. Some are fun. Some are stupid. Everything in moderation!

11. The act of being a Facebook W****...nothing much to say on that one. USE NOT ABUSE!

12. The feature of Notes gives you the ability to type whatever you want. Most people use this feature for 'surveys' which basically ask you random questions. Then, one has the ability to TAG people that were MENTIONED within the note. However, most end up tagging TONS of people, in order to get some kind of comment on it. A note left uncommented is basically a slap in the face for the note-writer!

13. Status messages usually start out with the word 'is.' For example, Rachel IS writing a lame list. Some put random things in there, or a nice inspiring message. Some even see the blank space to put a quote from their favorite pop-punk song in there!

14. Videos. Some tend to be obnoxious. But generally, leaving someone a video suggests a strong and high level of comfort between the video maker and the recipient. Personally, I tend to ramble on in videos. If I make you one, I really care about you. Otherwise I wouldn't waste my time. A constant thing with Facebook video is, 'an error occurred' basically equivalent to the red ring-of-death for xbox players. One of the WORST feelings in the world is making a fantastic video only to find that an error occurred, and you have to start all over. It's almost as bad as being stabbed in the eyes. Painful.

15. Facebook "stalking" is something a lot of people tend to be accused of. Whether it be because you want to see if your crush is talking to other people, or because you have no life and watch over people's pages to see how socially-active they are, you might be a Facebook Stalker. If you find yourself constantly refreshing pages, seek help. If you make a reference to something on Facebook or that you saw on Facebook (not pertaining to you, but to someone else) during a general conversation outside of the internet world, someone might say, "wow! you're quite the Facebook stalker." If someone is accused of such a CRIME, the common response is, "it was just on my news feed, I happened to come across it." That's probably not true, although sometimes it may be. LAME EXCUSE.

16. This isn't limited to facebook, but the way one types and conveys messages is how they present themselves to the world. Some people add extra letters to their words and use acronyms in order to look laid-back and cool. Example: "likeeee ofmg thatss pretty cool but idk if i can comee butt ill askk mi mom w/e" Another form of incorrect type is Ghetto-style. This type of font l0oKs L1K3 Di5 nd iT iZ aNnoY1Nq 2 r34D. This actually tends to take up more time to type and more time to decipher. Also, CAPITALIZING EVERYTHING YOU WRITE USUALLY IMPLIES THAT YOU ARE YELLING. By no means does proper grammar need to be used, but making your type nice and clean (with the occasional acronym or two) and good-looking is always a plus in my eyes.

The author's comments:
Oh, and by the way, this is way over exaggerated, and don't take anything to heart. It's all in good fun.

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This article has 7 comments.


on Apr. 1 2012 at 7:13 pm
If you are in the corner and have got no money to go out from that point, you will need to take the personal loans. Because that will help you definitely. I get commercial loan every time I need and feel OK because of this.

bedbug BRONZE said...
on Aug. 27 2011 at 7:32 am
bedbug BRONZE, Seoul, Other
1 article 0 photos 18 comments

Favorite Quote:
\"If you come to a fork in the road, take it.\" Yogi Berra. Also, \"Any girl can be glamorous. All you have to do is stand still and look stupid.\" Courtesy of Hedy Lamarr

I swear I saw this on another website...do you know 6rounds blog?

amondal SILVER said...
on Mar. 26 2011 at 9:16 pm
amondal SILVER, King Of Prussia, Pennsylvania
5 articles 0 photos 27 comments
haha i can totally relate to the rule where you say all that stuff about being new to facebook....i know way too many people who had absolutely no lives the first week they got their facebook...quite annoying. good job!! :)

on Feb. 10 2011 at 9:56 am
CassidyMarturana BRONZE, Califon, New Jersey
1 article 4 photos 43 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Life isn't about just waiting out the storm. It's about learning to dance in the rain."

Sooo true! I come across all these things on Facebook and it's great to know that someone else hates when people type l1k3 th15 hahaha :)

on Nov. 27 2009 at 1:33 pm
invisiblesoul BRONZE, Covington, Georgia
4 articles 0 photos 15 comments

Favorite Quote:
Be strong now, because things will get better. It may rain now, but it can't rain forever.

So true...so true. :) Ironic that below this is the option to "share this post with my facebook friends". I think I will!

Schmandrea said...
on Sep. 27 2009 at 2:24 am
Schmandrea, Nowhereland, Nebraska
0 articles 0 photos 5 comments

Favorite Quote:
"...Addison, why is your pool so shallow?" -Brooke

Hahaha. Dear Author, I love you. :)

on Sep. 21 2009 at 1:14 pm
This article is so funny! I enjoyed it a lot. Keep on writing!