Knowing Netiquette And When To Use It

Added: 11/09/2007

The internet has spawned all kinds of new and interesting things from a whole industry of businesses called dot coms to a new way to speak called leet. But when you surf the internet and start using things like chat rooms and message boards there is another new internet twist called netiquette. Netiquette is the unwritten rules of communicating on the internet and it takes a while but once you learn them you appreciate them.

Netiquette and the internet go hand in hand because you should not be using the internet until you know netiquette and how to use it. Netiquette is a morph of the word etiquette into an internet terms that just means the unwritten rules of how to communicate with people on the internet. If you know your netiquette and how to use it then you will not only find communicating on the internet more fun and effective but you will also start to realize that the internet has created an entire culture that runs based on these unwritten rules of conduct. If you ignore netiquette and persist upon being obnoxious and doing things your own way then more than likely you will get ignored and when you really need the internet for something those that you treated poorly with your lack of netiquette and those you thought were just a joke suddenly become important and you cannot get the things you want or need. The internet is more far reaching than you may realize and the potential of the internet is still being explored. But still today the internet is one of the single most powerful one on one communication tools in the world and there are few things that can get your message out to a mass amount of people but still allow individual contact as the internet.

Your first rule of netiquette and how to use it is that trying to enter a chat room with people you suspect to be half your age is not only creepy but counter productive. Like any other culture the internet culture is broken down by age and generations and people within the same age group usually communicate better with each other. An attempt to cross age groups can be frustrating on the internet as it seems that the older you get the more concerned you become with actual sentence structure, spelling, and proper grammar. Younger people seem to be more concerned with getting the message across as opposed to how well that message can be understood by the receiver. If you have ever seen the commercials on television with the daughter speaking to the mother in text message speak then you can begin to understand the frustration. Younger people seem fascinated with cryptic messages while the older you get the more you just want the message and move on with your day.

The next lesson in netiquette and how to use it is never trust anyone on the internet. There are a lot of creeps out there and a lot of predators that spend all day pretending to be someone they are not so that they can meet the types of naпve people they are looking to take advantage of. Chatting with someone on the internet, or posting to a message board, should always be considered in good fun unless you have previous arrangements set up with the person you are chatting with. If you are a 15 year old girl you should never assume that the person you are chatting on the internet with really is a 16 year old boy. Never give your personal information in a chat session or on a message board and never try and meet someone you meet in a chat room until you are completely sure what you are getting into. The world is full of all kinds of people and you will find most of them on the internet and they are all pretending to be someone they are not. So be careful, have fun, but never let that fun result in problems for you. Be smart and remember that nothing on the internet is what it appears to be.

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