 |  | |||||
|
20 Dec A couple of years ago, before "conversations" online were getting really popular (i almost feel dirty using that term, since its kind of overused, but...) i thought that it was pretty easy to behave poorly online -- for instance, think how easy it is to send rude emails to companies whose products you don't like, or post poor reviews, etc. Now, with the wide use of participation and engagement among individuals (like here on gooruze, or social networking sites, etc) i wondered if behavior would improve...for instance being tactful when disagreeing with someone's viewpoint in a comment, or sending constructive feedback to a company, etc. in essence, treating people as you would if you were talking to them face to face. Well, I have recently been reading articles on Digg (i know, i'm a late bloomer) and WOW, some of those comments are biting. Maybe I'm a prude. And I'm the last person to be giving lessons on tact. But just because it's easy to be completely and totally honest about your feelings, I still think its worthwhile to use a filter between brain and mouth (or in this case, fingers). What do you think?
| ||||||
Add a comment on this blog. | ||||||
 Previous Comments | ||||||
Vote:
March 13th Might I add it maybe therapy for some people. An easier way for people to release their bottled up anger/rant caused by the conformity of everyday life. Just try not to take the Internet too seriously :)  Reply
Report
Vote:
March 7th I agree with the comments added about people feeling empowered to be horrid because they're anon (the problem is widespread and flourishing in all forms of self-publishing).
I'm sure you'll remember - http://headrush.typepad.com/creating_passionate_users/2007/04/death_threats_a.html. In this case the author modified both her online and offline behaviour as a consequence of 'negative feedback'. I'm optimistic that introducing semantics (semantic web) into self publishing will reduce some of the behaviour by allowing emotional context to be added. Hopefully removing some ambiguity in articles, posts, reviews and comments by giving individuals the ability to use mark-up and not words alone to express the emotional state that was evoked by what was experienced (read, felt, seen, heard...). The realist in me says that no matter what tools we equip people with for communication there will always be those who want to 'stir it up', 'play a joke', 'educate the ignorant', 'put them in their place' etc.. But for today I just want to be happy knowing that there are good people in the world and whether online or off, I'd like to meet a bunch that I have things in common with. Reply
Report
Vote:
January 7th Digg has a very bad reputation for the comments that are often posted. Given the primary demographic that uses Digg, it's not surprising it has this problem.
Reply
Report
Vote:
December 2007 I'm not sure if this is answering your question, but I think it's easier to be rude on online social networks because even if eg I was rude to you, I'm hiding behind the computer. We don't know each other personally either. So people may feel they can make some kind of snarky comment and get away with it because I'm not going to meet you down the street and we won't have an awkward moment of you asking me what is going on.
Also if you think about TripAdvisor.com - Trip Advisor is so skewed and I actually doubt a lot of the times that people are actually sending factual feedback to the hotels that are listed in Trip Advisor. I mean, it is known to people that Trip Advisor is a waste of time for accommodation reviews, but some people will just write a review and trash a hotel and it isn't really constructive criticism. Yet the people who write the reviews know that hotel management is not going to come down and sue them or something so they can be rude and/or dishonest. However, I would hope that in the future as more people hopefully learn netiquette, that you should still be tactful as if you were in a face-to-face conversation. Reply
Report
Vote:
December 2007 Maybe it's the Brit in me that would rather be tactful than confronting but I would have to agree that people are more aggressive online due to their anonymity. I think this probably has improved with social/professional networks where people's "real" profile is on display. I think this is forcing people to realise they have to be more responsible for their actions now.
Reply
Report
| ||||||
 |  | |||||
by 
