We have been dealing with guidelines for online relationships, particularly our social networking connections. Today, we highlight five other commandments for those you connect with online.
6. THOU SHALL ONLY MEET IN PERSON WITH PEOPLE WHOSE CHARACTER YOU HAVE PROVEN OVER TIME, AND ONLY DO SO IN PUBLIC PLACES, AND DO NOT GO ALONE. You can’t just travel to meet a person you hardly know because you met them online yesterday. Many have met their untimely death that way. First, you must patiently prove your online friend’s integrity for a long time, after which, should you wish to visit them, insist on using public places like a mall or a public restaurant, not in their homes or in hotel rooms. You must also insist on coming with a friend for security purposes. Please you don’t have two lives, refuse to be careless with the one you have.
7. THOU SHALL NOT MISTAKE EMOTICONS FOR GENUINE EMOTIONS. How many times have you sent a weeping emoticon to a person online,while your eyes were actually dry? How many times have you sent over a dancing emoticon, when you were actually sitting down or lying down? The bottom line is that emoticons aren’t necessarily genuine emotions, they are simply technological representations. It is by far easier to pick on them,than to genuinely feel what we have picked upon. Many have been flattered and flustered into believing that such emotions were real to their own peril. Please take them lightly, until they are empirically proven to be true.
8. THOU SHALL REALIZE THAT PRIVACY IS EVERYTHING. Do not mortgage your privacy for the sake of fun. Do not release anything that you don’t want to go viral. Unfortunately sexting(the sharing of sexually graphic images) is rapidly becoming common in our day. We must realize that once we release such images,we automatically lose power over how they will be shared. Secondly,anyone who is crazy enough to demand such graphic images,is likely to be crazy enough to keep them. The keeping of such images is the breeding ground for untold troubles. The more socially connected we become technologically, the more we should fight for our privacy.
9. THOU SHALL ONLY SAY WHAT YOU MEAN. Socially we live in a technological society that is obsessed with documentation and storage. For the first time in history, there is no correlation between space, size and volume of what is being stored. Storage makes information more strategic and valuable. Storage means that whatever you say can be reproduced at a later date, and used for or against you. This means that sincerity is now a strategic imperative. Particularly as we chat, realize that such communications could be preserved, even if you didn’t intend it to be so. Caution must be exercised with words either written or spoken.
10. THOU SHALL NEVER CONCLUDE ONLINE. You may have met your partner online, but you won’t live online. You will have to complement your online knowledge of them with practical knowledge of them. Many people are great to chat with online, but awful to live with. I don’t believe it is wise to seal relationships with people you met online, such relationships should be on probation until you have enough hard evidence to justify it’s validity.
Adherence to these rules will not only protect you from relationship vampires, it will guarantee absolute quality in the relationship you choose to establish. Online relationships are here to stay, we must be smart enough and discerning enough to not cast our costly pearls before swines. We shall revisit the subject of online relationships in greater detail at a later date. Thanks.
THE GREATEST IS LOVE.
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It is an eye opener sir.Thank you for today’s post.How is the new Queen&the mum doing sir.Regards
“The dog that will not get lost, must hear the hunter’s whistle” 🙂 (Y)