Once upon a time there was no such thing as social media, text messaging and Facebook. The rules of etiquette concerned letter writing, when to leave a calling card and how to behave at formal dances. Now, however, we need new guidelines to help us navigate the digital world. There is so much that can be covered, but here are the top rules you should keep in mind for your online life.
If you wouldn’t say it in person, don’t say it online. Just like your parents may have told you, if you don’t have anything nice to say, don’t say anything at all, you should not feel emboldened by the anonymous nature of the internet. Keep it positive and constructive.
THERE IS NO NEED TO SHOUT!!!!!! Or use multiple exclamation points. Caps lock is not your friend. Since the person or people on the other side can’t hear the inflection of your voice or see the expression on your face it is best to keep your words lowercase and let one punctuation mark serve your purpose.
Remember once you press send/submit/post, it is out there. An email can’t be unsent and a post, even if deleted, can be seen and a screen shot can be taken. For these reasons be absolutely sure that you don’t mind if your words or picture were to be seen by everyone you know.
Give credit where credit is due. If you post a picture you didn’t take then include the source and if you are quoting someone be sure to include his or her name. You don’t want to violate copyright laws.
As college students who are going to enter the professional world at some point, we need to represent ourselves well online. And we should want to be positive forces in an age where negativity is the norm online. Stay refined, collegeittes.