Maggie Smith, portraying Lady Grantham on PBS's hit show Downtown Abbey, quipped, "Principals are like prayers. Noble, but awkward at a party." Another character on the show was voicing political views during a bridal party. Lots of eye rolling and awkward silence ensued. Lady Grantham's statement made clear what we all should know and put into practice - there's a time and place for everything. While you may have principals, and while they may appeal to most everyone, no one wants to hear them spouted off during inappropriate times or in more celebratory venues.

Facebook - fun, family and friends.
Facebook is a medium where you want to post feel good moments and updates. It's a community bulletin board. If you aren't sure what you would like people in your community to know or be aware of, consider the idea of keeping what you discuss at a cocktail party appropriate. If you aren't comfortable complaining about Congress or discussing bible verses to your close friends face-to-face, don't post it on Facebook. If the intimate details of your ovarian cysts, erectile dysfunction, cleaning your cat box or why your ex won't take you back, why would you make sure all your 300+ fringe friends know? FB is a virtual cocktail party. It's expected to discuss work, family, life and social happenings. Beyond these topics all you are going to accomplish is to overstep your boundaries, making people irritated and uncomfortable. If you don't believe me, you probably also have no idea how many of your 300+ Facebook friends have chosen to hide all your posts because you have nothing to say that is of any interest to them.

LinkedIn
LinkedIn is all about work and what you do in the business portion of your world. There is no need to talk about vacation on LinkedIn. It's not the appropriate medium for your social life. Neither would you go all Instagram on your LinkedIn contacts and post mindless stuff like pictures of food and cats.

Tumblr And Twitter
Tumblr and Twitter are small potatoes. Not the type that amounts to the little stuff in the little sense. It just means that anything that gets tumbld or tweeted needs to be short and sweet. No novels or 30 minute videos. Neither of these is appropriate.

Snapchat, Instagram and Pintrest
Social causes and blogs aren't going to be found on Instagram, Snapchat or Pintrest. Again, keep it in the genre that your social media contacts are looking for.

If you want to talk religion or politics, or principals or divorces, find a site or two that caters to those causes and ideals. Wouldn't you rather discuss it with like-minded people who share your interests? It's not anyone's job - other than a teacher - to educate people on what one believes to be important. If you rant during a networking event for work, be prepared to make people uncomfortable. The same holds true for certain social media sites. If you opt to go ahead and post about politics, religion or your very personal life, don't be surprised just how many people stop paying attention to you all together. Soapboxing about stuff no one else gets worked up about will just make them uncomfortable.