Not every thought needs saying, not every story needs sharing and not every screenshot needs sending.

Restraint has a bad reputation because it gets confused with dishonesty. Holding something back is often the more careful act, since most of what passes through your head is unfinished, and repeating it makes it permanent and somebody else’s problem. A screenshot in particular takes a person’s worst sentence and gives it a second life they never agreed to. Silence costs almost nothing and is rarely regretted.

Before forwarding something about a person this week, ask whether you would say it with them standing beside you. If not, let it stop where it is.