Pretty straight-forward, right? In today’s online media age it’s easy to forget one’s manners though, and it’s sometimes confusing to know what proper etiquette is for the Internet. So much so that there’s an entirely new term for online etiquette — Netiquette: the correct or acceptable way of communicating on the Internet.
Quite simply put, if it’s bad etiquette in person, it’s bad etiquette online too.
A few easy online etiquette tips for “Minding your P’s & Q’s”:
- Writing more than one or two words in ALL CAPS is the online equivalent of yelling at someone. (Don’t all cap an entire sentence or paragraph unless you really need to.)
- Stalking people on social media isn’t necessarily illegal, but it’s still pretty creepy. If you wanted to connect with someone personally, you’d send them an introduction letter, invite them to meet, or walk up and shake their hand and introduce yourself. Give your online connections the same courtesy.
- Don’t hijack conversation threads. When someone’s in the middle of telling a story or an interesting conversation you wouldn’t just bust in with an unrelated comment about your great uncle Joe’s pet bobcat. (Well, unless the conversation is about bobcats that is.) If you have something to add to a conversation online, then by all means do so – just be polite and don’t try to change the conversation topic.
- Respond when someone says something to you online (engages with your blog in the comments, or on a social media post or such). How weird would it be to have someone say something to you in real life and you just look at them and say nothing? (Well, personal feuds and the intentional “silent treatment” aside of course.)
- Say “Please” and “Thank You”. And mean it.
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