Netiquette Vs. Ettiquette

Don’t let ‘netiquette’ overshadow good old-fashioned etiquette.

I read an interesting blog the other dayand felt so passionate about it that it drew me out of my recent blog-writing hibernation. If you have a short attention span, stop reading now, because I’m talking about you.

The author of the blog, Kevin McShane, offers invaluable adviceon the ‘netiquette’ of differentiating ‘Interruption Marketing’ on the internet from ‘Permission Marketing’. (Follow the highlighted links on the blog for his other excellent blogs on the topic). The main thrust of the blog I read being that people will simply unsubscribe, remove, avoid or block anything they perceive as ‘intrusive’. Which is true. Seth Godin (McShane’s reference) defines ‘permission marketing’ as: “The privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them.” Protecting the rights of the humble internet user from being bombarded by invitations to events, such as comedy shows and the like.

Allow me to welcome you to The Age of Rights Without Responsibilities.

For all its wonderful contributions to society, the internet (and one could argue, sites like Facebook and Twitter in particular) has the potential to undermine society’s growth more than any other tool created. We have the ‘right’ to view, to read, to share, to comment and we also have the ’right’ to harass, denigrate, defame and vilify. All with perfect anonymity. No backlash for participating in the smear campaign of a celebrity, no penalty for spreading lies about politicians to skew public opinion of them or plagiarising and misattributing quotations, and no appreciation or respect for performers who have spent years building an act and are attempting to publicise their shows as they present their Art for peanuts. If they’re ‘bothering’ you by taking up half a second of your valuable attention, block them.

With the modern internet, we have created the perfect vehiclefor our New ‘Rights Without Responsibilities’ World Order.

When something is annoying, we block it. When it is amazing, we ‘’like’ it or ‘share’ it or ‘tweet’ it or Digg it. But what of everything in between? What of stand up comedy, art exhibitions, music events, plays, independent films and creative projects that are interesting to us, but not yet fully formed? What about products and services we are curious about but the herd hasn’t yet told us it’s OK to publicly associate ourselves with?Do we email them and congratulate them on their hard work? Do we offer advice to help their growth? Do we go out on a limb and emblazon their marketing across our online social identities, with the hope that everyone’s taste will soon catch up to our own? Sadly no. Like a wonderful restaurant that sits empty beside the junk food store with bulging queues, we tend to follow the crowd. ‘Cos the crowd can’t possibly be wrong, right? Once again, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

The more society has given us rights, rights and more rights,the greater liberties we have taken with what wearegiven. The internet is undeniably about giving people what they want. Free. And in less than 140 characters. And we now have a generation who has never livedwithoutthe internet. The times, as Dylan sang, are a’changin’. (And considering the recent trend of misattributing quotes – such as the fabricated Martin Luther King Jr quote when Bin Laden was killed), I’m now doubtful it was Dylan, and almost certain it was Lady Gaga.

What’s disturbing is that with this right comes no responsibility. Even Spiderman – re-jigged for the 21st century – retained his hard-(l)earned mantra…. ‘With great power comes even greater responsibility’. A brand-new army of web-slingers in our society (and it isn’t exclusively Generation Whatever-Comes-Next) have been conditioned to believe it is acceptable toexpect,as theirright;to take, take and take some more, without ever believing there is aresponsibilitytogiveback.

This seismic shift in societal mores, as Hamlet might say, ‘must give us pause’…. Or was it Robert Pattinson who said that, in one of the Twilight movies? I’m not quite sure…. Was it John F. Kennedy who prompted America to consider ‘Ask not what your country can do for you. Ask whatyoucan do for your country’? Or was that a Katy Perry song? I’ll admit, I didn’t read JFK’s whole speech, it was more than 140 characters…

How many times have youcomplainedabout a service in person? And how many times on the internet, by clicking of a button? I’d wager my left nut that the latter is far higher. It’s a hell of a lot easier to say we think something sucks, with an anonymous click than to offer feedback on someone’s hard work, even if it’s not for us right now. We can smile politely to a waitress and hate them in our guts, knowing ‘We’ll show her!’ when we get back to Yelp. (Where she can’t retaliate by spitting in our food). We have the final word. Or click. Either way, hate them or ignore them, it is our right. We are living in the Era of Zero Responsibility. And we question why people don’t extend us the courtesy we so rarely offer others.

How many times have youcomplimenteda service, product or show in person? How many online? I’d wager my remaining nut that they are about equal. And low. Like a spoiled child who demands much, gets more, and goes withoutnothing, we are failing in ‘doing unto others as we would have them do unto us’, as it says in the Bible. (Hang on, it could have been Harry Potter 6: The Chamber of Forgotten Manners… What the heck is going on with my memory!?)

Growing up I took three things as my philosophy:

1) Do unto others as you would have them do unto you (Bible)

2) To thine own self be true (Hamlet) and

3) Help people when you can (Mum & Dad)

This triumvirate of ultimately non-denominational governing common-sense principles in my life prohibit the ‘Rights Without Responsibilities’ mentality. Unfortunately, it doesn’t quite mesh with a lot of people today.

I remind myself that technological innovations are the result of creativity and hard work and the ‘bad press’ they receive often says far less about the creation itself than the individuals who populate them. I left My Space originally due to bullying and death threats. Seriously. Death threats. Don’t write a popular blog on My Space. My Space didn’t create this cowardly mob mentality, it simply provided a vehicle with tinted windows from which e-thugs felt empowered to ‘drive-by’ cyber-pedestrians. Facebook has its hate groups, Twitter has its cliques and the internet is rife with irresponsibility and ignorance, but the sites themselves are just bits and bytes. That’s all they are. These social networking ‘advancements’, therefore,become a sort of Rorschach test of those who use them.

Let’s not fail the test.

Back to McShane’s inference that promoting comedy shows ‘without permission’ is unacceptably intrusive. Has anybody noticed that Twitter and Facebook are provided as free services? Would you complain about a landlord who took the opportunity to hang up his shingle on your front lawn and try to sell you Tupperware, in exchange for free room and board? Why not email one of these people you’re blocking and at least tell them why. Contribute to the productive growth of art, products and services in your (global) community. Otherwise, their quality may diminish commensurate with your attention span, until the only thing that is able to hold you longer than three seconds is the latest iPad2 app. And even then, barely.

I am personally less concerned by legitimate advertising on the internet than I am by ignorance and stupidity on the part of the internet user. When the poor harassed internet user by-passes a product, service or comedy show that has taken a lifetime to create, yet dives headlong into ‘check out my sexy new video’ spam, somewhere, another potentially hilarious comic holsters their microphone in favour of a day-job, at exactly the point they have something to really joke about.