The key thing here is for us to characterise this as a personal statement about one’s own use and relationship with social media. Not a set of rules for others. At most, I *ask* that people respect my boundaries and respect my choices.

I feel that being transparent about what matters to me is a further expression of who I am and how I wish to engage others through this form.

Social media is just too new for us to engage it blindly, passively or unconsciously – guided by assumptions or the desired uses of those who wish to buy and sell our data. They ask us to talk about “what we’re doing” – updating our every move, sharing what we buy, our “favourite” this or that. We’re encouraged – no, manipulated – to express the parts of ourselves that are valued by the market. I defy that as well.

Again, we simply have to put some thought and personal agency into what it is we’re doing. As Howard Rheingold always says “what it IS is up to us.” WE are defining what these tools can be used for – not the other way around.

What’s your social media policy violet? Would love to read it!

However, I wonder about #5 (warnings and communication). For example, say someone is constantly mouthing off about a particular person via twitter. I am not sure if I can say it really is my business to notify and politely inform them of MY social media policies. What if their 1,000 other followers don’t mind? What if I am just being too sensitive? Who am I to tell someone how to behave, or tell them they need to follow MY OWN social/behavioral policies? I think this can be touchy as everyone has different personal policies.

I struggle with this all the time. I don’t think I’ve ever sent anyone a note asking them to stop venting or stop behaving in such a way which *I* disapprove of, but I try to offer a suggestion to ease the problem.

On a side note, as another student of anthropology and as one of your Twitter followers, I would say you haven’t broken any of the norms or “laws” of Twitter. :)

Don’t know if you want a comment on this page but here’s some more food for thought (you can remove this if you’d like to keep the page intact).

There are many reasons I created my own policy. One of the primary ones was a desire for some sort of social contract around what it is I’m doing with social media. All of the sites we use have their own policies and terms governing *our* use of their sites but what about us? That’s part of my inspiration.

I also feel very strongly about the differences between my use of social media and others. I really want quality connection – not people just adding me for some sort of arbitrary numbers game. I think a lot of us aren’t really thinking about what it is we’re doing with all this stuff – and generating tons of personal content and context in the process. I wanted to challenge that mindlessness a bit with something concrete.

If this is going to be a part of our lives and socialisation – with the potential to reshape human interaction and behaviour – we’d better start thinking about this stuff as more than a diversion.