Dominic George: There's no context in social media

Every word can create a storm.

I mentioned in passing last week the commendable stance taken by Pakistani Cricket management who have banned their players from using social media throughout the duration of World Cup. This is eminently sensible because, as we know, sportspeople aren't always the sharpest tools in the shed. For a sportsperson using Twitter it's a question of when, not if, they'll make a fool of themselves and, more importantly, the team or franchise they represent.

But let's be fair -- it's not just sportspeople who make mistakes when it comes to social media. There was an interesting story in the Taranaki Daily News earlier this week concerning, in part, a South Taranaki farmer who's an avid user of Twitter but has had to tone things down a bit once he realised posting things online isn't quite the same as making a few comments at the pub or to your neighbour.

Said farmer was caught up in last month's Twitter debate regarding the Rachel Stewart opinion piece, in which she maintained farmer moaning has reached a new crescendo. The relative merits or otherwise of this argument have been discussed ad nauseam but it's clear, from the article, our farmer is going to be more circumspect before posting in the future. And herein lies the nub of the issue.

By posting something online you're effectively telling anybody who cares to take a look and sometimes even those who don't. It ain't called the world wide web for no reason. He's learned the hard way though after receiving what could euphemistically be described as parenting advice after posting a photo of his kids playing in cow excrement. The husband and wife farmer combo stress how good the like of Twitter can be as a general business tool, but it's the personal stuff that's led them to be more cautious.

There are many examples of people falling into the pits of despair after an ill-advised tweet or Facebook post, but one account I read recently in the New York Post should serve as the most salient of all.

Justine Sacco was flying from New York to South Africa in 2013 when she tweeted, among other things: "Going to Africa. I hope I don't get Aids. Just kidding. I'm white." When she disembarked from the leg of her trip, she had gone from relative Twitter obscurity with 170 followers to the number worldwide trend in the space of 11 hours. She was also unwittingly labelled one of the biggest racists on the planet -- in 11 hours.

What developed over the course of those 11 hours should serve as an abject summation of the world as it stands currently, from big city to tiny rural hamlet. A hashtag labelled #HasJustineLandedYet had people utterly fixated as the saga turned from bewilderment to outrage and then into intrigue as people stayed awake late into the night to see what would happen, all in real time. They weren't disappointed. One chap with nothing better to do actually went to Cape Town International, tweeted Ms Sacco's arrival, took a photo and posted it online.

The upshot was she, like many others in similar predicaments, lost her job and was the subject of irrational vitriol for many months to come.

So whether you're farmer, sportsperson or someone who thinks they're funny, tread lightly. There's little or no context in social media. And, as a final point, consider this for a moment before you post your food, your kids or your thoughts et al for the world: who really cares?