I have every single person I follow from this university muted on my echofon Twitter application.

I’m not proud to make that statement because I realize how passive aggressive it is to save a person’s feelings by muting them but not have the courage to simply remove them completely. It goes without saying that seasoned users of Twitter’s realize how difficult it can be to break it to your friends that you follow on Twitter just how annoying they are in expressing their often unnecessary and ignorant opinions on a multitude of things, which is why the ‘mute’ feature was created.

It allows you to maintain the friendship, follower count and ego from being bruised without having that awkward interaction with an individual you know who knows that you unfollowed them. It happens to best of us unfortunately and I have been on the receiving end of being unfollowed by a friend. It hurts a little knowing that a person you speak with everyday is not interested in what you have to say over the internet and puts into perspective just how invaluable your opinion really is.

I grew from this social network burn for the better, and have since changed my style up immensely from my early Twitter days, simmering down on rants and raves and only commenting on things I feel I can really contribute to without being annoying. Social networks are a reflection of who has self-control and who doesn’t. Who has the intellect to express their opinion and who has the maturity to know its appropriate to do so. Often times, just because you have something to say does not necessarily mean you have to say it, which is a lesson every opinionated person needs to learn the hard way.

You learn a great deal about a person by how they govern themselves on social networks and the person who is loudest on the timeline is not always the smartest. I appreciate the efficiency at which you can express quick 140 lettered thoughts of what exactly is going on in your mind, but learning how to express yourself in a way that is evidentiary of some form of tact can help you in the self control department of life all across the board. The mute button is equivalent to being quiet for the rude person in the room instead of telling them just how rude they are. That cold dose of reality can be good for anybody whether than can receive or not.