”Netiquette" is network etiquette, the do's and don'ts of online communication. Netiquette covers both common courtesy online and the informal "rules of the road" of cyberspace.”
- Virginia Shea
The internet is dichotomous environment, it has a lot of positive vibes and reactions, but then there is also the people who doesn’t care and doesn’t know how to behave.
Like in every situation we have a some kind of patterns and rules how to behave and how not, I think it’s important to have same kind of set of rules in the online environment too.
When reading about the Netiquette by Virginia Shea I think the one of the most important point is the ”Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life”
That people would remember who they are, their powers and knowledge, the people behind the screens and that everyone has feelings.
People should think what they post online and also how and where they do it. Every platform have their own audience and people who see and are able to react to the post.
For example the post that the person writes to Facebook might get more publicity and reactions than a post in Instagram, it also depends the target audience a lot.
The way how you write and express yourself online is a critical point too when publishing something public, because everyone might not understand what did you originally mean and this can lead a huge misunderstandings, which are pretty usually in the web.
In real life people are more careful of their actions and their opinions but in web, where they are not so easily to be identified, they might forget all the manners and think that they can behave and say whatever they like. Luckily nowadays this kind of behavior has decreased a lot from what it used to be and people have learned more how to behave also online, but there will always be those who don't want to agree with these rules. If everyone would follow the rules of Netiquette and respect others also in the web we wouldn't have major problems like cyberbullying and fake news.
Also nowadays the security and the surveillance has increased in the web, for example Youtube is checking and controlling the videos and comments that are created and one good example from Finland (the only one that I'm familiar with) are the effective internet police officers (Nettipoliisi), whose work is to go around these popular social media platforms and report of any malicious action.
There is many examples in the popular social media platforms, like Facebook, Youtube and Instagram (that I personally use daily), where you are able to see the variety of people’s opinions and how they affect to others.
One hot topic currently is the use of masks and to take or not to take the vaccine for COVID-19.
My Facebook is full of different kind of posts, where people are arguing the pros and cons about the current situation. Some even call that the whole COVID-19 is based on a conspiracy theory, for example that it’s happening because of 5G or the previous actions of Bill Gates.
Often when surfing around internet and especially some places where some kind of chat or forum is involved I feel like people forget easily that there is another human being front of the screen.
I personally think that the Netiquette should be more shared and that everyone should read it at least once. Maybe in someday it’s made a compulsory piece of reading in high school or even before you are able to access internet.
Sources:
http://albion.com/netiquette/ (accessed 11.03.2021)
https://allianceforscience.cornell.edu/blog/2020/04/covid-top-10-current-conspiracy-theories/ (published 20.04.2020,accessed 11.03.2021))
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