The weird ways of online communication
Freedom to mess things up
More than often, young Internet users seem to think that they have found the Promised Land - no teachers, policemen or angry Grandma. One can do anything, nobody will know...? Actually, Internet can be far less anonymous than they think (finding out addresses and computers is often possible and obnoxious wrongdoers will get punished sooner or later).
Still, just like in real life, most online conflicts will start not from a deliberate attack (although this is possible) but rather gross misunderstandings (often caused by cultural differences). Therefore throughout the history of Internet, people have tried to set up some rules which help prevent such cases.
An online contact has a somewhat different profile than its real-life counterpart. A significant difference is the first impression being verbal (rather than visual) - strangers will be 'seen' through their written words. Many online channels forward the content of a message, but remove a great part of the context - situation, mimics, body language, tone of voice.
Let's have an example. The message is "You, Sir, are a total idiot!". This is transfered
- in a half-drunk chat between two old friends sitting in a sauna - probably not taken seriously at all, almost all of the negativity will get lost.
- between the same friends over a phone call - the context will be less and the conflict is more probable, yet the people still know each other - and they can sort it out immediately.
- between the same friends in an instant messenger - even less context (no voice either), but still possible to react right away.
- in an e-mail - being a discrete medium (a message can be answered with another message, a different entity), this will make the conflict much more probable.
- in a fax bearing the official letterhead of a company - this hypothetical scenario adds negative context by suggesting the official statement (Our company has decided that you are a cretin!).
- in a letter signed by President, addressed to another head of state - while very unlikely, this may end up in a war.
