Google before you Tweet – it’s the new think before you speak!

Every once in a while, I receive emails from well- meaning friends that tell of all sorts of treacherous and nefarious things going on right under our noses.  “Events” that are mind numbing to imagine yet happen and no one will pay attention because the media are part of the “global conspiracy”.

You have probably received a few of these yourself.  Do you recall the email describing President George W. Bush’s lamentable IQ score, labeling him as the most obtuse president in American history?  Or, how every US Presidential election since 1936 can be accurately pre-determined based upon the outcome of the Washington Redskins home games.  Or how about the one that says: If we all ban getting our gas from a certain distributor on Wednesdays, then our prices will lower.

Without double checking and even triple checking our facts, we risk the possibility of being perceived as people that are just not living in reality.  When someone is branded as wearing a tin foil hat, they often are never taken seriously again.

This goes beyond just forwarded emails.  With all of the social technology that is available at our fingertips, verbal miscues can be made at break-neck speed and they last on the internet for virtually ever.  False information can be forwarded by accident with incredible ease.  Status updates that border on the crazy can follow you all the way to your next job interview.  Opposition research will have a field day searching Facebook statuses for years to come.  Immature college antics coming back to haunt you could become the “better than Christmas” gift your political opponent will use for 10,000 get out the vote mailers.

Here are a few tips to consider before you hit the reply, forward and update buttons:

1. Do your due diligence
2. If something sounds particularly dramatic, it deserves extra special attention and research.
3. Perception is reality.  If readers perceive you to react irrationally to everything, you will quickly lose all credibility.

Your Mom always told you to think before you speak.  Now you must google before you tweet.  The vernacular may have changed, but the concept has not.  For more information on American Majority’s trainings, check out our resources page at https://www.americanmajority.org/resources/ and learn additional tricks of the trade when it comes to effective activism and campaigning.