HOW much thought do you really put in before you press that button and send a tweet weaving it's way out into the wide world of the internet?
Do you consider whether there will be consequences to slagging off your team's number nine and posing the question of whether he could hit the proverbial barn door with a banjo?
Do you debate what the ramifications will be if you question the parentage of the referee or whether he is capable of reading a series of tiny letters on a wall six feet away?
If you are Joey Barton, then Twitter is clearly just connected to your frontal lobe without any kind of filter whatsoever.
Every conscious thought he conjures up seems to be transmitted through his fingers and into the ether before he is even aware of it himself.
Personally, I'm thankful for that. Agree with him or not, his musings are among the most entertaining on the web.
Whether he is slagging of his own QPR team mates or rejoicing in a surprise act of thuggery from David Beckham in another corner of France, Barton, who is currently on loan at Marseilles, rarely holds back.
But, while it is unlikely to be an issue for him, as he heads into the final few years of his career, the next generation of young footballers may need to think twice before they press the button and release a stream of consciousness out into the world.
Because, in the Premier League, the stakes – and the money involved – are so high that many clubs now employ psychologists, who are appointed to fulfil one solitary task.
Their role is to trawl through the Twitter feeds of both their own players and those of potential signings.
Not to see if they are breaking libel laws – they have lawyers employed specifically for that task too – but merely to monitor exactly what the players are saying.
The belief is that, over the course of 4,000 or 5,000 tweets, it is possible to build up a pretty accurate profile of their character.
Are they confident, upbeat and resolute in the face of defeat? Or do they take things personally?
Is every tweet laced with vitriol and venom, as is often the case with the brilliant musings of Barton?
Or do they talk ambitiously of what still might be achieved, rather than looking bleakly back at the failures of the past?
When you are investing millions of pounds in signing a player, it is a process that actually makes a lot of sense.
On the pitch, Lionel Messi and Paul Gascoigne were both blessed with majestic talent. But, away from the game, they are very different characters.
With this kind of profiling, at least clubs have a better idea of what they are taking on; if they have a player who may need a little extra support – or one they should even avoid signing all together.
While the match reports from their scouts will still hold significant sway, so will the findings of these reports put together purely by the player's use of social networking.
What Brian Clough would have made of such things is hard to predict... although you would suspect that it would involve his team not being allowed to tweet at all.
Indeed, in recent weeks at Nottingham Forest, it seems somebody has had a quiet word with the players about their tweeting habits, given that those players who had once been prolific in sharing their views on the club and their progress seem to have gone decidedly quiet.
Those who do still tweet tend in general, to avoid the topic of football, at least where Forest are concerned, asides from the odd thank you to fans for their support.
Following a season that could hardly have been packed with more drama and intrigue, you could determine a great deal about their personalities, by looking back through their feeds since the season began.
Greg Halford, in particular, is one man who has often viewed things with refreshing honesty and openness – as demonstrated in many of the interviews he has done at various points through the campaign, but also through his often very blunt tweets.
This is also one club where the players have had their characters tested to the limit on the pitch – and on the training ground – as they became acclimatised to the demands and nuances of three different managers.
But the biggest test of their mental strength is still to come.
And it is one that will tell you more about their stoic nature than anything they may have ever revealed on Twitter.
Because, on Saturday afternoon, Nottingham Forest's play-off fate will finally be decided one way or another.
For their part, all they can do is defeat Leicester City and hope that three points are enough to steer them back into the top six.
To be fair, the team – and Billy Davies for that matter – deserve credit for even succeeding in engineering a situation where achieving a play-off place is still possible. Because the club was in disarray following the departure of Alex McLeish.
Claiming just their third ever away win at Millwall has been enough to ensure that they go into the final day with a chance of overtaking either Palace or Bolton, to secure a play-off place.
But it was the impressive run of six straight wins, shortly after the Scotsman returned, that provided the most significant catalyst for their revival.
Now the pressure will mount again, however, as Forest look for one final win, in front of a sell-out crowd at the City Ground.
Yes, Davies' men still need either Bolton or Palace to slip up – and all eyes will be on the New Den again tonight, as the Lions host their London rivals.
But it will mean nothing unless they claim three points themselves.
Given the way the Championship season has unfolded so far, it would be foolish to predict anything.
It is still possible, after all, that only ten points could separate the team finishing third from bottom, in the final relegation place, and the club finishing sixth.
But, where Forest are concerned, it is also possible that they could still end up in the play-offs – and ultimately even in the Premier League next season.
And, if that happened, they would welcome the opportunity without question, even if it meant they found themselves under greater scrutiny, on Twitter or anywhere else.
