Digital Etiquette? How should people act online?

[Dhabyah]

Well, this topic is a very interesting topic. Considering that I am in group 2B (digital etiquette) I really need to know people's views about this.

Question: How Should People act online? How different is that in comparison to their offline behavior ??

Please Reply... Let me know what you think!

[MateyaT_TIGS]

Hello Mr. Macoun, this forum and blog entries are very interesting and I thought this was quite common in kids and even some adults today. So I basically chose this topic on bullying and what’s the difference of having fun and what’s doing harm by bullying online.

This can be concerning as being a digital citizen on the digiteen amongst others were if you don’t follow the digital etiquette as some students have seeing your frustration and anguish. Although these students are not following the digital etiquette they have not been taught to us by following these guidelines and etiquette as being digital citizens. But some schools do teach this but not many as it is not compulsory and worldwide.

For example you could ask for your parents to help you on this but their generation does not have this type of technology and computers back then. I know my parents always ask for my advice on the computer and etc. As all schools have their interpretation and create rules out school so that they follow the right digital etiquette, where at home there are no rules to enforce digital etiquette.
This is where social networks like MySpace, Msn, Facebook, Twitter and many more etc but these social networks have digital etiquette. Therefore being a safe environment to communicate and socialise with one another etc. So you cannot be bullied, harassed, embarrassed, picked on, verbal abuse and threats etc.

The internet has created a whole new world for my generation and many others. This has created things that you would not say to people in ordinary day to day life. But on social networks you can like abbreviations and also unfortunately abuse. People who don’t follow the digital etiquette feel like then can abuse, taunt and etc because it’s online.

Therefore they cannot see you and they think they can get away this but because they think it’s the virtual world. Also this can take a huge impact and consequences on some people taking threats seriously and where in some extreme and rare cases the people went suicidal. Also on most social networks like MySpace and even the digiteen have monitors and keep record of what you say online in case of an emergency etc. So you will get caught and there’s no point you have to see what’s a bit of fun and what can be bullying and crossing the line.

So by saying this take this seriously and just follow the digital etiquette as you would in the real world. Just follow the simple rules of not bullying online, threats, abuse in any form, taunts and etc. So what im trying to say is you wouldn’t do this to the real world so just follow the digital etiquette online and we can be all better digital citizens.

From Mateya Tomii The Illawarra Grammar school Year 9 Australia New south Wales

[JacksonG_TIGS]

When people go online and talk to one another it’s a lot easier to say things to them compared to real life a good example of that is cyber bulling which is happening all over the world because of this rapid increase in technology, about 10 years ago or even 5 years ago you wouldn’t of had this problem because of the technology that was around then. There wouldn’t have been MySpace, Msn, Face book or any other blogs where you can communicate to people around the world or to who lives up the street.

Cyber bulling is 1 of the worst sort of bullying tactics there are. When you are being cyber bullied it’s really hard to get away from it because of the advancement in technology. You could be receiving the messages via your phone or on blog sites and what people can say is really mean and hurtful.

In September 2006, ABC news reported on a survey prepared by I-Safe.Org. This survey of 1500 student between grades 4-8 reported:
• 42% of kids have been bullied while online.
• 58% of kids admit someone has said mean or hurtful things to them online.
• 58% have not told their parents or an adult that something mean or hurtful has happened to them online.
So when you go online to talk to your friends or relatives to should be really careful of cyber bullying and if you are getting cyber bullied you should tell someone. But if you’re an adult you can still be cyber bullied like many other adult around the world. The worst place that you are susceptible to cyber bulling is at the workplace.

If you use blog sites or other communication via the internet or on your phone if you use digital etiquette when you are meeting new people they will respect you and become your friend. Digital etiquette is simply saying ‘Hi, how are you going.’ So when you go online people should be nice to each other and not say rude things about other people to there friends, your friends or to that person.

This could differ to someone’s offline behaviour because in real life the person could have a really good friend but as soon as they go online they could be saying things about them to another friend they have. Really behaviour online is a lot different to someone behaviour in real life. So when people go online they be should respecting people beliefs because it is a lot easier to be rude to someone online then it is when you are talking to them in real life because you don’t have face to face contact and conversations.

So when you are going to go online you should be nice to people and use digital etiquette to talk people that you know or that you’re meeting for the first time online.

[EliseG_TIGS]

Online and offline behaviour can be two totally different worlds to teenagers today, however this can be both a positive thing and a negative one. It is a know fact among teenagers that it can be a lot easier to talk and communicate with people over a conversation on the internet (such as MSN), especially with people they are not used to talking to. It can be a tremendous struggle for people to go up to someone that they have had little or no contact to before and strike up a conversation, but on a chat over the internet it can be the most easiest thing that they could have done all day. The intimidation of talking to someone new ‘face to face’ is alleviated by using the internet to communicate, even though people may not be quite sure of why this is.
Because it becomes such a relaxed, easy and fun way to communicate it has become a very popular way to talk to friends, family or even people unknown. However because the ‘face to face’ aspect of the conversation is no longer part of the discussion, the users have to be quite careful of what they say because the receiver may not understand what is coming across as they type a phrase. Aspects like tone of voice, expression and facial expressions are no longer a part of the conversation, and this leads to confusion and sometimes can lead to people having fights, misunderstandings or more serious fall outs. Even though there are misunderstandings that can happen sometimes they’re not misunderstandings but are actually serious poor behaviour that has happened online. Because people become so relaxed with the internet they start to sub-consciously believe that if they do not say mean things to people to their face then they are not hurtful at all. However hearing someone say something hurtful is exactly the same as seeing it written to them, maybe even worse because it is in writing.

Myspace, Facebook, BeBo, MSN, Interactive Game Rooms or any other types of online communication are places where people have misused the internet. A term has been invented for this form of abuse, ‘Cyber Bulling’. Cyber Bulling is harassment, torment and threats over the internet, phone or any other type of interactive technology, where one or more people are bullying a certain individual or group of people. This can be done in many ways including constant messaging of inappropriate or hurtful things, hacking into someone’s online account to gather information or send messages off it, teasing or frighting someone over an online conversation, e-mailing private information about someone else, posting pictures or information about someone on a Web site without their consent, creation of an Internet poll, either over IM or on a Web site, about someone without their consent, signed someone else up for something online without their permission, sent viruses to someone else, insulted someone in an interactive game room, posted rude things or lies about someone online, voted on an online bashing poll or posted to a guestbook saying rude or mean things. All of the listed torments are all forms of cyber bullying. According to the National Crime Prevention Centre, in August 2008, 40% off all teenagers with internet access had reported being bullied online during the past year. This is a huge amount of teenagers throughout the world that are being bullied each day, some worse than others and most of them would agree that they are bullied a lot worse online than they are offline.
Teenagers today are fairly shy and intimidated by others, making other people feel smaller and less important then themselves makes that bully feel better about their own life. So in order to do this they find the quickest and easiest way to make it a success, online.