The 9 worst things that can go wrong on social media

These days trolling through social media sites has become a high risk and dangerous activity. One wrong move and you’re left feeling embarrassed, awkward or downright uncomfortable.

1. The Accidental ‘Like’
Perhaps the most common of all social media slips, making this error is not usually disastrous but can lead to some awkward moments. Little compares to the horror of liking a profile picture from 2010 of the sexy guy who smiled at you in the library that one time.

2. The Accidental Friend Request
Again, not the worst that can happen but a slip that is preferable to avoid. It is always followed by the do or die decision to cancel the request or not. Just own it; you know they’re going to get the notification anyway. Then you wait and hope they don’t play the Bebo card and post the shameful, “Hey, do I know you?”.

3. Posting Your Search Term As A status On Facebook
Perhaps the most feared of all social media errors- the object of your creeping is named and shamed for all your friends to see. The best you can wish for is that you hopefully know the person so it doesn’t have that air of stalking about it or that you have noticed in time before any attention can be drawn to it.

4. The ‘Frape’
An oldie but a goodie. The frape appears in a number of forms, ranging from a harmless unflattering picture to an explicit or offensive personal mail or even a complete hijack.

5. Drunk Messaging
The dread of looking through your WhatsApp and Facebook messages when you wake up after a night out. In some cases it might be best to delete ‘high risk’ contacts before you hit the sauce. No one wants you waking them up at 4am just because you’re looking for someone to join you for a kebab.

6. Snapchat Fear
A newcomer to the world of social media slips, the safehouse for outrageously unflattering selfies when sent to the right person. But then there’s that question we’ve all asked: what on earth was I sending to people last night?

7. Accidentally Tagging The Wrong Person
This one may not be the end of the world, but really you’d rather not have tagged that random girl you met in Irish college in a group photo of you and your mates.

8. Autocorrect
Damn you, Autocorrect. In fairness, it can give way to some pretty funny slips but more often than not, the message becomes either incomprehensible or completely inappropriate. Even the most careful typer cannot avoid this pesky trap. However it’s a handy go-to excuse for retracting a risky comment you made or covering up your drunk typo.

9. The Agony Aunt
There’s always that one eager relative floating around your news feed, liking everything you post and leaving flattering comments on all of your pictures. “Yes, I need my mam to tell me I’m pretty because no one else will…”

via our content partner CT