Digital Etiquette For Dummies. Eric Butow

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       Understand the rules and community standards. This is especially important when you’re on social media websites, because they do have a lot of rules that you should know about. If you can’t find those rules, just perform a quick search, such as Facebook rules, to help. If the team responsible for your intranet has no rules or standards set up for communicating properly, ask them to put rules and standards on their site. You may have to formally approach your boss and put together a presentation to get it done, but it’s worth the effort to prevent miscommunication that wastes everyone’s time.

       Respect others. If you wouldn’t say something in person or in a face-to-face Zoom meeting, don’t say it in a text message, either. If you disrespect people in your brain and you don’t think it’s a problem, that information will get out. People will react. That's when you’ll find out that you have a problem.

       Be neutral. When you’re not sure about how someone will interpret information, keep what you’re saying as close to the facts as possible. Don’t inject your opinions into your argument, because someone might interpret it in any way they want.

       Understand when humor is warranted. Don’t use humor and sarcasm unless you know your audience well. If you’re sending an email message to your team and you all know each other’s communication styles, you can be freer to be yourself — but not always. For example, don’t be disrespectful to anyone, even if you’re on familiar terms with them. When you send messages to people you’re not familiar with, are you sure they’ll understand you?

       Don’t use all caps when you talk. You shouldn’t yell at someone in person, and you shouldn’t yell at someone online by using ALL CAPS.

       Don’t use multiple exclamation points. You can use an exclamation point sparingly when you need to make a forceful point, but don’t use multiple exclamation points. You’re in an online communication medium, not a comic strip.

       Keep personal information to a low ebb. If you give out personal information, make sure it’s related to the point you want to make. Otherwise, you don’t have to volunteer anything if you don’t want to — and keep in mind that, if you do share personal information, some people may try to use it against you if they feel you threaten them.

       Report violations. When you see a problem arise, report it. This is especially true of posts you see on social media, but it’s also true if you see private info that might badly affect others. For example, if a peer at work disrespects one or more groups of people, that will likely harm the company, so you should talk about it with your boss and/or human resources rep.

       Put your name in your message. Don’t assume that your instructor will recognize the username in your email address or the username you use in your learning management system. (You may want to look up the old proverb about the word assume.)

       Identify the course or subject you want information about. The answer you need depends on what you’re talking about. But if you just want to know the date of the next exam, the universal response still applies online: “Read the syllabus. Cripes!”

       Follow the leader. If you’re communicating with your instructor or a teacher’s aide — that is, anyone who outranks you in the classroom pecking order — let that person establish the level of conversation. You don’t want to send a message with profanity and acronyms that your instructor may not understand. (Okay, they'll probably understand the profanity, if not the acronyms.)

       Use proper grammar and punctuation. You’re using a written medium to communicate, so using proper writing skills will impress not only your instructor but also your fellow classmates. You’ll also want to pay attention to your instructor about how to use acronyms and emojis. (Instructors, we talk about using them later in this chapter.)

       Keep your tone neutral. You don’t know how other people will react to something you type that you think is funny. And you wouldn’t yell in a classroom, so don’t yell online by using all caps or exclamation points.

       Be factual. If you are unsure about something before you send it, check it out first. It’s important to get the facts straight in an assignment, so fact-check your information before you send it on in an email or a chat message. (It may be harder to check online during a video class because you need to pay attention to what’s going on.) If you’re not sure about something and you’re getting conflicting information from what you see in a Google search, bring up your concern with your instructor first. The instructor will give you some guidance and may thank you because now they can present this information to the rest of the class.

       Keep in mind that nothing is private online. If you’re talking to your children about this topic, it’s something you need to say early and often: Everything on the Internet is stored somewhere. Students should keep not only their own information private but also others’ information.

       Stay focused. This is advice for both instructors and students. Staying focused means making brief points about the topic under discussion. If some of the points aren’t clear, people will let you know and you can elaborate. Even then, keep your responses as short as possible so as not to annoy your instructor and classmates.

       Be as respectful online as you would be in the classroom. The rule is simple: If you wouldn’t say something to someone’s face, don’t say it online. Use your instructor’s proper title or the title the instructor prefers. Don’t trash classmates’ opinions online, not just because it’s the right thing to do but also because the instructor can still discipline you as though you were in a real classroom.