The Nine Commandments of TwitterAndy Freeman - 9 Feb 2014

A Church of England Diocese has suggested some Twitter commandments.

The Diocese of Bath and Wells in South West England posted the guidelines after a flurry of twitter related media stories of people speaking inappropriately or offending others on Twitter. 

The Diocese’s idea did cause some chuckling as people wondered if this was just church morality stretching too far. However, the context for their ideas does need a second look…

Did you know that there were 4,507 reported cases of “cyberbulling” in the UK last year? Sadly there are several stories too of people taking their own lives as a result of the abuse.  Maybe you don’t think four thousand is a big number in a country with several million twitter users, but these cases are just the ones that have been officially reported – and even these are up from 2,410 in 2012.  

It seems that social media has created some ambiguity about the way people treat each other. Maybe cyberbulling is at the extremity but I suspect many of us know people who’ve received abuse or “trolling” through Twitter.  It seems to that on the other side of the scale many of us experience people “firing off” a tweet without really thinking. Twitter is all about the moment and reacting, but is that always the best idea?

The Diocese of Bath and Wells suggested some handy guidelines for their staff to help them use Twitter well. These were all nine...

    •    Don't rush in
    •    Remember tweets are transient yet permanent
    •    Be a good ambassador for the Church
    •    Don't hide behind anonymity
    •    Be aware of public/private life boundaries
    •    Maintain a professional distance
    •    Stay within the law
    •    Respect confidentiality
    •    Be mindful of your own security

In the letter to the Ephesians Paul asks us to:

                           “be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you”

These are wonderful words in any setting but think about what they would make Twitter, if we acted kindly, being forgiving rather than being quick to condemn. 

All images are used by permission in accordance with commons copyright license terms:
Feature image is a derivative of the image 'Twitter Bird Sketch' by Shawn Campbell and '53 Twitter Icons Promo Pack' by webtreats