Puskas: Is Twitter social ... or anti-social?

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

Eight little words. None more than two syllables.

Simple, and yet so right.

But lost on so many of us.

I can’t tell you the first time I used those words, but increasingly, they make up my go-to phrase.

There are myriad uses and sometimes I check myself with it.

As someone for whom social media has become an everyday tool instead of a now-and-then thing, those words are in the back of my mind every time I’m on Twitter or Facebook.

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve queued up what initially seemed like a brilliant retort on Twitter or a snarky observation on Facebook, only to pause just before the moment of truth.

Do I really want to go there?

Sometimes, yes.

Sometimes, no.

Whatever the ultimate decision is, caution is always a good thing. It’s the journalist’s version of measure twice, cut once.

If Keith Olbermann had measured his responses before going on a Twitter rant against Penn State students — he called them “pitiful” — he might not have been suspended for a week by ESPN.

Olbermann has been engaged in a back-and-forth row with Penn State fans ever since the NCAA restored the victories it took from the late Joe Paterno and the Nittany Lions in the wake of the Jerry Sandusky sexual abuse scandal. Last week, a Penn State fan tweeted at him the familiar State College refrain, “We Are!” along with a link to a story about Penn State raising $13 million for children battling cancer and their families.

Olbermann’s response: “ ... Pitiful.”

The ESPN anchor went on to tweet that the money raised wouldn’t change Penn State’s reputation, which he believes is tarnished by its handling of the Sandusky allegations.

Full disclosure: I wasn’t a fan of the NCAA’s decision to restore the wins, but what bothered me more was the tone-deaf manner in which some Penn State fans celebrated their restoration. I made that clear in some social media posts.

The “409” stickers and signs and demands to return Paterno’s statue to its “rightful” position on campus just looked bad. I get Olbermann’s anger and why he’s so indignant about what happened in State College.

But it’s one thing to be critical of the university’s handling of Sandusky and the way some of its fans seem to care more about winning on Saturday than the welfare of the disgraced and jailed former defensive coordinator’s victims.

It’s quite another to bash those Penn State students who are, by all accounts, doing good in the community and had nothing to do with the Sandusky case.

Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.

There are countless cautionary tales of people who lost their jobs over ill-advised tweets and posts, whether it was a joke gone wrong or a Tweet that was meant to be a direct message. Some athletes have paid a heavy price for ill-advised social media displays.

A lot of good intentions can be buried by a hasty response or a bad look. Just ask Keith Olbermann.

And then measure twice and cut once.

Write Vindicator Sports Editor Ed Puskas at epuskas@vindy.com and follow him on Twitter, @EdPuskas_Vindy.