Mind Your Internet Manners

We take off hats in church, watch our language when Grandma visits, and open the doors for strangers.These are things we are taught as young children because we live in a society where kindness and respect are still (if at least barely) a way of life and living. We have learned social norms for things that we understand to be respectful (as well as disrespectful). So now, as we enter into a new digital era, why are we not developing ways in which we are respectful on that realm?

It seems a norm to say horrible, cruel things online because we can hide behind our computers or fake profiles. Because the internet started wildly, exploding in girth far beyond our initial scope, we are now stuck with a monster of social disaster. Where are the handshakes and the tipping of hats? Why does it seem like we are constantly seeing "trolls" running the comment pages with horrible statements and cyber bullying a common place thing. Have we taken our school yard tendencies and brought them now to a place where the consequences are few, even though our words are written, encoded and documented electronically? Now instead of words that are called out from across the school yard, they are plastered over forums and social media sites for not just classmates to see, but families and strangers and the effects are far worse and maybe even far more devastating.

It seems, then, that now is the time to utilize our time as teachers who work extensively online and incorporate into our classrooms an understanding of what the web can do for us, as well as against us. Internet manners, so to speak. Just like bullies in the school yard, there will always be those who will use anything at their exposure to hurt others, but we can help teach other the importance of "being nice" and why it matters in all aspects of our lives.

How often do you feel teachers take the time to explain the importance and consequences of a student's online actions? Most time searching and working in the classroom is based wholly on working on the items at hand. It would seem "common knowledge" not to say mean things or berate others online, but we know that in the end, when not monitored or without proper knowledge, a child/person will easily go about their usual abusive ways. At what point do we start off by giving "online etiquette" and is there such a thing?

Recently a slew of extremely talented, very public and involved women in the digital scene have been victims of harassment, ridicule and even threatened! I usually would not use an exclamation point when just stating a fact, but how are we in such an age of wild technological advances, yet we still live in a barbaric age where intelligent, open women, willing to be vulnerable for the sake of education and openness become victims of such vile acts? How can we possibly call ourselves a society when we still act like animals? Have we just jumped back to the middle ages in regards to women's rights and respect? And at what point did those who were bullying and harassing ever think that what they were doing was just as horrible as saying to their face. Have we lost our sense of reality hiding behind keyboards, feeling this false sense of superiority, willing to send off any comment or wicked word because we can? I believe in free speech in all sense of the term, but free speech was not meant for you to break down the beautiful living souls who devote their entire lives for their freedoms, your education and the openness of the web. In the end, will these horrific statements and harassment be what brings down the openness of the free web we so easily take advantage of?

What happens when the web is no longer open and free? What would be the ultimate cause of the destruction of what we have grown to love and enjoy and use to every extent possible? The laws that we will have to make to prevent those from being devastatingly cruel? Do we have to go that far that we even have to make those laws? How can we educate the next generations about the need for "niceness" on the open web? How do we instill this sense of respect and understanding that comes with open forums and social media? How do we show them this when as of late, the horrific crimes are being committed just as much by adults (if not more so) as the kids who don't think twice when spewing out hateful words. Is it because the internet grew so fast, so wildly, and so free that "because we can we will" online and yet when it comes to etiquette, we don't even see that such a thing would be necessary? Like the open web is a dark alleyway where dark dealings go down and because there are no rules in that corner of the city, we can do as we please? Why do we accept that as a society and let it keep happening? Yet, what can we do to keep people from being horrible to other people? We have been this way from the day Adam and Eve crawled out of the ooze of the swamps. It will always be human nature to be cruel to feel superior.

So maybe, from much younger ages, we can instill in children the same respectable mannerisms we were taught when Grandma would visit, or when we would walk into church. At some point we need to begin a habit of teaching the respect that everyone, even the faceless names in forums and blogs, deserve because even though they are just electronic representations, behind those works and writings are still human beings who want to cherish the openness and crazy, beautiful, wild world of amazing possibilities that the web holds. Harassment and threats should not ever, ever be an acceptable part of the internet.