I myself definitely think that the internet nowadays is the true face of humanity, since it has no physical limitations to freedom of speech, nor has strict guidelines that would guarantee punishment if broken. Moreover a lot of people prefer to stay anonymous which gives them the feeling of being "immortal", as they can say whatever they want wherever without any consequences. Over the past decade the situation began to fall towards immoral levels. For example the current twitter "cancel" culture, is taking a toll on a lot of people. In summary, people find random things that a popular person did years ago, and exaggerate it to extremes, thus try to label someone as either racist, homophobic, fascist, sexist even if with full context their claims are not logical and do not actually make sense just so they can create a bandwagon to bully a person. However the reasons aren't even vaguely reasonable. Sadly this doesn't only happen to celebrities.
Of course it might seem fun for one to toy around and troll someone, but when it reaches a certain level it no longer is just fun, its cyber bullying. It is never harmless, when the situation is one sided. The current environment in social media is filled with misled people, loosing all senses of reality due to fake lifestyle and guidelines enforced by the toxic community. This enclosed circle of negativity generates immense amount of hate, slowly but steadily removing any signs of "normal" humanity.
Looking at all of this, we should however realize that the majority of people, still want to do good. This is where giving people a second chance and teaching them the core rules of netiquette, which is the concept of the "proper" way to communicate in an online environment.
Rule 1: Remember the Human -"Would I be okay with this if someone else had written it?"
Rule 2: Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life. -"Would you behave rudely to someone face-to-face? On most occasions, no. Neither should you behave this way in the virtual world.
Rule 3: Know where you are in cyberspace. -"Netiquette varies from domain to domain." (Shea, 1994). What you text to a friend may not be appropriate in an email to a classmate or colleague.
Rule 4: Respect other people's time and bandwidth. - Make your written communication meaningful and to the point, without extraneous text or superfluous graphics or attachments that may take forever to download.
Rule 5: Make yourself look good online - Even if you are anonymous you will be judged by the quality of your writing, so keep the following tips in mind: Always check for spelling and grammar errors, know what you're talking about and state it clearly, be pleasant and polite.
Rule 6: Share expert knowledge - Recently expanded your knowledge about a subject that might be of interest to others? Share that as well.
Rule 7: Help keep flame wars under control - "Flaming is what people do when they express a strongly held opinion without holding back any emotion." (Shea, 1994). Don't feed the flames; extinguish them by guiding the discussion back to a more productive direction.
Rule 8: Respect other people's privacy. - Just as you expect others to respect your privacy, so should you respect the privacy of others.
Rule 9: Don't abuse your power. - Just like in face-to-face situations, there are people in cyberspace who have more "power" than others. Think of Rule 1: Remember the human.
Rule 10: Be forgiving of other people's mistakes. - If you feel compelled to respond to a mistake, do so in a private email rather than a public forum. This is key to keep discussions civilized.
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