Q: Due to my constant facebooking, I find myself liking stuff 10 seconds after they are posted. Do people think I’m crazy –Anonymous

A: Well, Anonymous, aren’t you just the eager beaver? There’s really nothing wrong with genuinely liking everything, but if it’s a constant habit for you people are gonna start thinking you’re just trigger happy. You need to take in a big helping of the Breathe, Read Twice and See if You Still Care method. Here’s how it works: the second you refresh your Facebook homepage and see that another pal has changed their status, take a deep breathe (in and out), read the status two times, carefully, and decide whether you legitimately “like” the information you have just processed. If in fact you do like it, give it the old thumbs up. If you’re on the fence or decidedly don’t like it, do nothing. Before you get too excited about this new technique, let’s discuss what “liking” something actually means. You need to feel happiness or some sort of positive emotion in response to the status. Often times someone will post a status message saying something depressing or difficult and less careful friends will say they “like” it. Somehow I don’t doubt you’ve gotten yourself into that mess before. I don’t want to discourage you from expressing your likes to the world—just be a little more thoughtful and your friends will notice. You could even post a comment—that way, your work friends will know what it is about their status that speaks to you. If you follow these tips you will be spared email notification upon email notification telling you yet another person has commented on Mary Jane’s status about being hungover from a terrible night of drinking and vomiting. And what about that sentence do you “like” anyway?

Like,
Lauren