Social networks... the death of social etiquette

Many of us probably belong to a social networking site or two or three. There are games, gifts, quizzes and much more for people to invite and share with friends, relatives and acquaintances.

In this virtual society, social etiquette appears to be a thing of the past. Forget spell check, there needs to be a blasted "Miss Manners" button anywhere people can write text!

People have sent me "Feel your bOObies!!" a group for breast cancer awareness, while a great group, was the invite really about awareness or was the point to be crude, funny or sexy? Anyway, I ignored that invite. Sorry boobies. I'm engaged to be married and the type of person I am, no one would ever say that to me in person much less in front of my fiancé. So why is it okay to send the request? Wait, its on the web, so it's not real, right?

People comment and are trying to be witty or funny and a great deal of it nowadays leans to lewd. We keep upping the ante of what socially acceptable on TV, film, games and all other media. Recently two of my fiancé’s professional associates, made comments with mildly sexual innuendo on his wall in Facebook and that's a public area. No matter how well they think they know him, they sure don't know me and I'm sure would never say those things in front of me, but that's exactly what they did. The question becomes are people who do that, just that stupid, or do they have so little respect for their friend and/or his or her partner?

On Myspace there’s that whole posting an image/html in the comments (a feature I disabled on mine - thank you very much) which has allowed people to post half naked ladies and men with a funny quip or my personal favorite… an image with a gazillion hearts saying they are thinking of you. Are you serious? Hearts? When is it ever okay to send someone else’s squeeze a sweet nothing?

Some of the things that come out of peoples "fingers" on Facebook, Myspace, Friendster, Plaxo, Twitter etc. astounds me. The entire world is watching and reading and unless you have an intimate relationship with someone and you both are totally cool with your business be out there... come on people, use some sense.

Here are a few questions that may help filter out the inappropriate.

Would you say it at a dinner party or in front of the person’s spouse/bf/gf/partner?

If you did, might a brawl ensue?

Would your mom/dad/grandparent be mortified and exclaim, "[insert your first, middle and last name here] what were you thinking? You were raised better than that!!!!"

I could go on...

okay I will...

Would you send it/say it to someone of the same sex? (or alternate sex, for people in same sex relationships)

If you said it/sent it as work might you get sued for harassment?

If your spouse/bf/gf/partner found out about it, would they give you the silent treatment for a period of time and then use it against you later during a fight?

If any of these scenarios lead to someone needing to attend anger management classes, it's a clue you should STOP... and step away from the keyboard. Don't post stuff that could at the very least make your friends, family or acquaintances uncomfortable... and at most could get you on a very insulted significant others shit list.

By all means, please leave PG comments, send well wishes, game invites, and those "where did you grow up?" quizzes... but leave the "What's your Sex Style?" quiz to the person they share their bedroom with.