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Social media lessons learnt from #racistamy incident

All it took was a few wall posts about a void deck Malay wedding being a tad noisy to have lead to the one of the hottest discussion on Facebook especially around the Singapore community.

There is also a hashtag dedicated to Amy Cheong on Twitter which isn't really kind to here.

So what can we learn here?

1. Privacy on Facebook is a oxymoron.

Anybody who thinks that you have privacy on Facebook and whatever comments you can make because they are just for friends only, please think again.

All you need is one of these friends to do a screenshot, share it on his/her networks which is opened to public and your comments are no longer private.

If you really want to rant, get a dairy. Locked it in a vault and throw away the key. Otherwise, burn the dairy after the year.

Remember, walls have ears. In Facebook terminology, walls can be shared, liked and comment, spreading at the speed of an electron.

Even the Prime Minister of Singapore has commented on the incident.

2. If you have nothing good to post, don't post it at all.

A friend shared that his mother used to tell him, "if you have nothing good to say, don't say it at all". I recommend an updated version with the sub-title above.

If you really do need to say it out, spare the extra spices to save yourself from future embarrassment.

3. Count to 10 before you post

This is basic anger management but please do count to 10 before your post.

In the heat of your rage, you might say or do things that you will regret later. The problem with doing it on a digital medium is that everything is recorded in bits and bytes.

Counting to 10 will probably cost you 10 secs of your life, but it is good 10 secs invested to save you from a lifetime of infamy on Google, Twitter, Facebook and the likes.

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