Does Facebook offer truisms about life?

Guard your ideas. Apparently, Mark Zuckerburg may have morphed the Facebook idea from brothers who were his college classmates as brought forth in the 2010 film “The Social Network.” The story goes that the Winklevoss twin brothers shared the idea with Zuckerburg to obtain his opinion and, no doubt, expertise, with further development. Whether or not it was ill-acquired, Zuckerburg’s name is synonymous with Facebook, and he basks in its revenue glory.

If not to love, at least learn to like. However, avoid going overboard like the

Israeli couple that liked Facebook’s like button so much that they named their daughter “Like” in May of 2011. This eyebrow-raising notion came on the heels of the Egyptian couple that selected the name “Facebook” for their child in February of the same year.

Occasionally, your status may change. In the Facebook world, one’s status is whatever is posted on a page that provides updates to some occurrence in one’s life; it changes continuously. So is life. One’s status may be copious with wealth today, and after a natural disaster or job loss, one may descend into the dreadful abyss of poverty. On the other hand, we’ve heard of individuals with a status of penniless today, and after winning millions, may proudly post a status of “wealthy.”

Prioritize. Accessing social networks, including Facebook, at work is usually off-limits. Here’s a catchy truism that some supervisors may enjoy: You are here to work at work; so social networking does not work.

Be careful with what you write. Ask a few NC teachers who, in 2008, posted

messages such as: “I hate my students,” “I teach chitlins,” and “I work at the most ghetto school in Charlotte,” as reported by WCNC-TV. Along with disciplinary actions, for not only the language but also provocative personal pictures, the CMS District looked into developing new policies addressing social media. Two weeks ago, another NC teacher, allegedly consumed by the poor scholastic efforts of a number of her students, posted grammatically incorrect samples of their work on her page. After being suspended with pay until the outcome of the investigation, Shanna Sigmon-Moore sent this statement to the Gaston Gazette: “I deeply regret posting something on my private Facebook wall that has caused pain to my students, my school, my family and my profession…It was meant to be an anecdotal snapshot of the nature of what I do. I only intended to share this with a few select friends on Facebook…”

Unnecessary drama is birthed over a few simple posts on a webpage. In

addition to the Gaston County teacher, ask any teacher, administrator, police officer, pastor, counselor, or anyone who has refereed as a mediator. When the bottom line is discovered, the argument or fight typically had its dramatic origins on Facebook.

Be not consumed. The late George Burns once said, “I get my daily paper, look at the obituaries page, and if I’m not there, I carry on as usual.” There are some Facebook loyalists who, like Burns, will log into the site, navigate through it, and shape their day based on the content they’ve discovered. The only difference is Burns was obviously comically speaking; obsessive Facebookers are often sadly all too serious.

“It does seem that life’s truisms can be directly related to Facebook,” surmises this columnist who has yet to be born into the Facebook family by creating a page.