Being a writer in any capacity is something that a lot of people strive for, and once you get into it as a career it seems you are forever that writer, who is open to advice or critique wherever or whenever it may come. 

I’m fine with that, but when it comes to my Facebook page, I prefer people keep their critiques to themselves. I recently posted a status update about something to do with my dad. There was an extra word thrown in, and a distant friend on my friends list felt the need to critique my slight grammatical error. 

“Ha ha! I guess that’s why you have editors over there at the paper!” She mocked, followed by “I thought you’d like to know.”

You know what? I didn’t want to know, and had I read my sentence more carefully, I would have noticed, but it’s my damn Facebook status and I was off the clock, and I just didn’t care. 

I’ve had other people say it to me before, too. “Aren’t you a journalist?” I’ve been asked on my wall. Yes, I am a journalist, but my Facebook profile is a projection of my personal life, not my professional life. 

I complained to my roommate, a cook at an area restaurant, after the most recent incident.

“I’m a cook, and when I’m not at work I don’t like to cook.” he said calmly, as I flew into a near rage. 

His answer made so much sense, that I simply repeated his statement after the offending Facebook comment and felt extremely satisfied. 

It’s not that I don’t like to write in my free time, it’s that when I am off the clock, I am writing personal things that don’t require a whole lot of editing as they are not for the public eye. I drop most of the creative language and attribution. I don’t quote people or come up with fancy leads into stories. I write about me, instead of the subjects of my stories. I usually don’t edit my emails three or four times over, and they are private and the people I’m sending them to don’t care if I spelled everything correctly or misplaced a comma or six (In fact my Grandma Hickli says I am a fantastic email writer, for all the Facebook naysayers). If people are whispering about mistakes I make in personal correspondence, well, they’re not very great friends, are they? If people want to see what I’m made of writing wise, they are welcome to view my work at the Fitzhugh. Otherwise, take my Facebook profile for what it is – a Facebook profile! 

I like to think of my identity as more than just “Annalee the journalist”. I have other hobbies too, that I like to do outside of work hours. I like to think that most of my Facebook posts are grammatically correct, but sometimes things slip through the cracks. We are all human, mistakes happen, and I certainly don’t lose sleep over the occasional written error. 

So why am I held more accountable for my Facebook screw ups than anyone else? Just because I’m a writer? If my cook roommate screws up a recipe at home, I would never mock him. If he asked for my critique, I would offer it to him. 

The day I decide to pursue being a professional Facebook profile writer-upper outside of my hours at the Fitzhugh, you can all feel free and encouraged to critique my profile. 

DISCLAIMER: The Last Word is an opinion column, it is meant to provoke thought and debate. As such, any opinions written here are the writer’s own and do not reflect the viewpoint of any other Fitzhugh staff member or the directors of the Jasper Media Group Inc.