old advice made new

Remember bulletin boards in elementary school? Before those teacher supply stores sold all the specialty borders and letters? Before chalkboard paint was a thing?

I saw a hand-lettered board just the other day. The poorly stapled message would have benefitted from a level. It annoyed me, possibly because it was shoddy work, but more likely because I was already annoyed by someone on Twitter.

True story. I was annoyed by a stranger on Twitter.

Unfollow you might say. Block. Well, yes. That’s an option. But it got me thinking about this person who is, quite possibly, a chronically unhappy individual and is constantly posting rounds of negativity, whining, and complaints. It’s a sad cycle of unhappiness, followed by complaints of unhappiness, which can’t possibly lift anyone’s spirit, so back again to a renewed round of unhappiness.

Unfortunately, it affected me.

I got to thinking, how often do I post something negative on Twitter because it is a convenient sounding board and forget someone is going to read it and perhaps have a reaction to it?

Do I really want to be that person spewing the garbage all the time? So I decided to make my own bulletin board here, reminiscent of the kinds I saw in the hallways at school:

T.H.I.N.K. Before You Tweet

T — is your comment truthful?

H — is it helpful?

I — does it inspire?

N — is it noteworthy?

K — is it kind?

3 thoughts on “old advice made new

  1. We actually have hand-made signs in our school building that say THINK before you: and have icons of all the social media sites available to us. I believe they say true/helpful/interesting/nice/kind, but I can’t quite remember.

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