Last December, I wrote about the 4 degrees of impersonal communications. The posting spoke of the way some people seem to lose sight of courtesy and common sense in their communications over “new” media.
Face-to-face communications (a first degree interaction) has no record, no evidence beyond the memory of the participants. Telephony (second degree) may have a record, such as an audio voice message. Email (3rd degree) gets circulated, over and over. Thanks to search engines and web-archiving tools, the web (4th degree) offers a permanent record.
Paradoxically, we seem to take more care in communications when the conversation can most easily be private and candid. Conversely, we pay less attention to etiquette and courtesy when the audience is global and of diuturnal impact.
Many of those who write or leave comments on blogs – and especially those that don’t even have the courtesy or intestinal fortitude to use a real name – use language or tone that simply doesn’t pass for reasonable discourse except perhaps in certain TV reality shows. Every time I get a comment notification, I brace myself for a tone that is too often uncivil.
My intent is to get my reader to look at issues a little differently – I am pleased when I can inflame your interest – I guess it means that I may be inspiring your thoughts with passion.
Mark Evans looks at Mathew Ingram‘s piece about on-line defamation from the Globe.
My own experience disagrees with Mark’s statement that the blogosphere “has been fairly libel and slander-free.”
Any other viewpoints?