Week 1: Clear

The concept that I found to be the most clear in Week 1 was netiquette. Not only was it the most clear to me, but it is also the concept that I find most applicable to life in general. Our world revolves around technology today - who doesn't check their Facebook and/or email within 30 minutes of waking up? However, technology is not human; thus, it is often difficult to accurately convey feelings, emotions and sentiments. That is why is so so important to practice proper etiquette online, or "netiquette." If you don't, you could end up offending someone or making people feel badly about something.

If you agree with me that manners and respect are timeless, then it probably won't surprise you that netiquette has not changed much over the last 20 years. In fact, the general rules of proper net etiquette that were published in 1983 still stand true today:

1. Put all items in an appropriate group.
2. Reply via mail.
3. Exhibit care in preparing items.
4. Read followups.
5. Don't be rude or abusive.
6. Avoid sarcasm and facetious remarks.
7. Use descriptive titles.
8. Cite references.
9. Summarize the original item in followups.
10. In posting summaries of replies, summarize.
11. Be as brief as possible.
12. Don't submit items berating violators of these rules.
13.  Don't make people read the same thing more than once.
(Click here to read an expansion on each of these rules by the author himself Jerry Shwarz.)

Check out this short  YouTube video from goanimate.com about why it is important to use proper netiquette. Like the man in the clip says, "There are people behind those computers." If you let that guide your internet actions you may save yourself from embarrassment down the road.