why there should be a social media etiquette…
Social media has broken down the barriers of communication in a lot of ways. It’s easier for us to make contact through dedicated real time channels. (And if nielsen’s latest report is to be believed, then we are emailing less and talking more through public arenas) We can also trend topics through veracity rather than mere participation, and we can gather sentiment of topics being discussed more thoroughly than ever before.
What this doesn’t excuse however is bad manners. It seems that language has become a flippant voyage of diatribe being spread to one-another through forums, twitter and facebook. We have beyond aggressive and sometimes threatening language on youtube posts, and we have to put up with the occassional spammer whose life mission is to bring frustration and evocative thoughts of re-introducing the guillotine back to existence a daily exercise.
And whilst there is no direct rule book to social media etiquette, I believe that there are a few simple solutions;
1. Treat it like a real conversation with a real person
It’s not hard, it really isn’t. Whilst it’s made conversation easier, it doesn’t actually mean that we are not meant to act the same way. Too many people think that being online means that they can say and pretty much express what they want, how they want. We live in a globalized world, where everything is real time, where data can be stored and where conversation can be monitored from every corner of the globe - unless you own a blackberry and are in the UAE.
2. Avoid bad language
We are all responsible for it. But in fairness, no-one, yes no-one wants to read “Bader you NOOB, go fuck yourself”. I mean, get creative not Neanderthal with your language.
3. Avoid overuse of exclamation marks!!!!!!!!!!
Ok, we understand that when we type something we are approximately using 72 different muscles, but the one you need the most is the one between the ears. We know how not to be rude when typing by properly using grammar, an exclamation mark should indicate frustration not take up another 7 characters.
4. If someone follows you, be polite and follow them back (twitter only)
Basically the whole #ff has created a sort of melange of who to follow. It’s clever, quick and expands the people in your virtual address book. But, if you are following 100 people and only 10 are following you back, it becomes a mere voyeuristic pursuit rather than actually talking to someone over the web.
5. Keep arguments private
The other day I had 300 new twitter messages in my public stream….192 of which were a riff between two people I was following. In honesty I couldn’t give a budhist’s orange robe what they were fighting about, and I am pretty sure (based on other people’s feedback) that no one else cared. If you want to have an argument, twitter, facebook, myspace and even beebo give you access to such a thing called “private messaging”.
Ok, so maybe I am getting old, but in honesty I do think that the web has somehow dismantled politeness. It takes nothing to be polite over the web, let’s not forget that the written word can even come across harsh if read in the incorrect manner - so why write harshly in the first place?
Any thoughts? tweet or directly reply and let’s have a civilised discussion.
