Internet Road Rage

Earlier this month, Real Simple magazine sponsored an event known as “Be nice on the Internet week.”  When I came across the advertisement explaining the idea, I have to admit I was intrigued.  I immediately had simultaneous conflicting thoughts.  First, what a good idea!  And then quickly followed by, why is there a need to be nice?  The Internet is not a person with feelings.

But that thought alone made me realize just how critical such an awareness of our Internet manners probably is.  In the grand scheme of things, the Internet is really still in its infancy.  We learn more each day about our individual interactions with the global community through cyberspace and how that affects our own lives.  Therefore, learning how to interact politely and with respect should probably be a high priority. 

In point of fact, how many times have you looked below an article you just read and saw a plethora of nasty or, at the very least, thoughtless comments?  Rarely do I come across a comment following an article that is helpful or thought provoking.  Most are simply nasty jabs or shallow one-word exclamations of praise.  My personal experience of browsing comments following an article I’ve read online has prompted me to almost always skip the comment section altogether.  I seldom gain any further understanding of a subject by reading what the global community thinks of it.

When I saw the week being sponsored by Real Simple magazine, it made me really think.  Perhaps we need new lessons on etiquette for the Information Age?  As our world grows smaller and we are connected to people across the globe by a simple website, perhaps we need to relearn some of the simple lessons from our childhood. 

As youngsters we are taught some basic levels of etiquette that are sometimes easy to forget as we grow up.  I think these are especially easy to forget when we are online with no real feedback from someone’s body language or facial expressions to keep our instantaneous criticisms to ourselves.  Remember, “If you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all”?  Or perhaps, “Think before you speak.”  And maybe most importantly, “Treat someone else like you would want to be treated.” 

If we are to try and impart how essential it is to maintain some basic level of humanity, even when faced with a computer screen and not another human, are there new rules that apply?  What exactly is the issue behind Internet etiquette?  Is this something that should be taught at school or taught at home, as lessons of etiquette used to be?  In other words, is this a writing issue or a manners issue? 

My instincts tell me it’s both and that we need to recall those early childhood lessons and turn them into useful techniques for modern times.  Instead of reading the newspaper and discussing its contents, we now email each other links to articles with our own comments attached.  Therefore it is essential to teach both good writing, in the form of critical thinking when faced with contrary ideas, and good manners to form those criticisms into complete sentences that wouldn’t offend your grandmother, were she to happen upon your name in the comment section.

In gathering information for this column, people have given me suggestions as to why thoughtless comments abound on the Internet.  Perhaps society as a whole is simply ruder now.  Etiquette isn’t taught like it used to be, so we are simply less educated as to what is polite.  Or perhaps we are simply comfortably protected at home behind our computer screens. 

I’d like to think we haven’t descended that far and that humanity, like the Internet, is still learning how to adapt to a rapidly changing world.  Certainly interactions in the real world have not descended into such baseless one-line razes as you can find below any number of articles, columns and videos online.  But perhaps we could all use a refresher course in being kind to others and reminder that if you wouldn’t say it in front of your grandmother, don’t say anything at all.