Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Wednesday Tech Tips: Netiquette

This week's post started with an article I read over at the New York Times which sent me down the rabbit hole of How to Be Classy online.

Credit: http://www.keepcalm-o-matic.co.uk/

From the humorous to the serious to the snarky, there is a lot of advice.  Because this is still evolving, and expectations are going to be different from generation to generation. 

Edutopia's "Don't Even Think About It" is a pithy intro to online etiquette (the article was originally written in 2008, but it advice is still sound).  Forbes' more recent article on social media brings this advice up-to-date.  And Design*Sponge has a lengthy but useful post on email etiquette -- the business letter of today!


 
 
 
 
 
 
 
SUM UP: how we can make our social lives online kind and gentle places?
  • Remember who you are talking to (best friend, teacher, Grandma, etc.)

  • Who else can see this?  Along these lines, if this was a photo of you, would you want it made public?

  • Respond in kind whenever possible (telephone when telephoned, email when emailed)

  • Remember that your life online is an open book unless you make it otherwise.  So party plans, discussing someone's horrendous breakup or surgery, or hating on your job might be better done in a private thread/group or offline altogether.

  • Aaaaand just like in real life, if you are about to post from a Hulked-out angry place, take a couple minutes.  Reflect.  If posting is going to have personal repercussions for you, take extra time to run it by someone whose opinion you respect.


As always, I'd love to hear what your opinion is on this topic.  Do you think anything important has been overlooked?  Are folks too uptight or not uptight enough?  And do you make unswervable judgments of others based on their ringtones?

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