Eric Butow - Digital Etiquette For Dummies

So we start by defining etiquette in the digital age. We talk about spam and privacy laws not just in the United States as a whole but also in individual states as well as specific countries and regions. And we talk about communicating effectively — no matter your age and no matter what forum (including social media posts and groups, virtual meetings, livestreams, and phone conversations).

When writing this book, we assumed that at least one of the following statements describes you:

You are a human being who wants to better connect with fellow human beings.

You have a business and you want to communicate more effectively with current and prospective customers.

You are committed to devoting time and energy to make yourself a better communicator.

If these assumptions are correct, this is the right book for you! We’re confident that the tactics and information here can help you achieve your goals.

To make things easier and ensure that you don’t miss important details, we have made use of various icons throughout this book. Here’s what the different icons look like and mean:

The Tip icon is a small piece of expert advice that saves you time and makes your experience online more enjoyable.

Because we cover a lot of details and information, every now and then we throw in the Remember icon to remind you of important details we've already covered. We know you’re reading every juicy detail of the book; the Remember icon just helps resurface some of those tidbits.

Who doesn’t love a little geekfest on technical jargon? Okay, a lot of people! But that’s why we’ve pulled out these paragraphs so that you can understand the technical aspects of digital etiquette without getting overwhelmed.

Yes, this book has a few warnings. When you see the Warning icon, please take a few extra moments to understand the effect of what we're saying.

In addition to what you’re reading right now, this book comes with a free, access-anywhere Cheat Sheet that provides a handy list of digital etiquette rules as well as strategies for navigating the Internet with aplomb. To view the Cheat Sheet, simply go to www.dummies.com and type Digital Etiquette For Dummies Cheat Sheetin the Search box.

The first three chapters in Part 1introduce you to digital etiquette, including what digital etiquette is (and isn’t), laws and policies, setting and respecting boundaries, and rules for everyone at all age levels, from kids to adults.

We think you should at least familiarize yourself with the concepts in the first three chapters because you need to know the concepts in Part 1so that you can conquer digital etiquette in Part 2. If you deal with email often, you’ll want to focus on Part 3. (It not only talks about email etiquette but also fills you in on what you need to know so that you don’t run afoul of legal trouble in your email marketing campaigns.)

After that, we have a lot of information about virtual meetings, which were already popular before the COVID-19 pandemic propelled interest in that topic into the stratosphere. And let’s not forget mobile etiquette. ( Part 5talks about not only text messaging but also how to be polite when you’re talking on your phone.) If you want to focus on a specific area, the table of contents will guide you to where you want to go.

Now it’s time to get started reading about what etiquette is and how to use it in your online communication. Enjoy the book!

Part 1

IN THIS PART …

See how etiquette has changed in the digital age

Know the online ramifications of online behavior

Recognize the importance of minding your manners

Chapter 1

IN THIS CHAPTER

Learning some definitions

Gauging when etiquette considerations are called for

It’s easy enough to define etiquette, isn’t it? Just be kind to one another.

That’s all, folks — thank for reading!

Of course, you know that’s not the whole story or else you wouldn’t be reading this book. It’s hard enough to know what etiquette is when you’re dealing with other people face-to-face. But now communications devices have added many more rules for communicating not only with video cameras, which are ubiquitous on computers and phones, but also in situations where you don't even see the other person (and you may have noticed that makes people seem less considerate, to put it mildly).

Before we can talk about how to apply etiquette to the digital age in which everyone now finds themselves, we need to review some definitions. Once we do that, I’ll discuss how you can apply etiquette in different situations, including social, small group, and business environments.

Let’s start with the obvious question: What is digital etiquette, anyway?

You may also have heard digital etiquette referred to by the portmanteau netiquette — that scrunching together of the words Inter net and etiquette. No matter which term you’ve heard, the same definition applies: You should follow these basic rules of behavior whenever you interact with others on the Internet or use electronic devices like smartphones. And by Internet, we mean all kinds of online communication, including email, forums, and social networking websites.

Let’s start a deeper dive by talking about the term netiquette, which may be the most familiar to you. This term predates the modern Internet by quite a few years — 1983, specifically. This was the era when bulletin board systems, or BBSs, were the primary means of communicating online.

The acronym BBS doesn’t ring a bell, huh? Maybe the national services CompuServe, The Source, and America Online can help you (not so fondly) remember the days when you had to save up for a faster modem — such as 56Kbps or even (gasp!) ISDN.

The two prominent dictionaries have slightly different definitions of netiquette, but it’s useful to keep both in mind:

The Oxford English Dictionary defines netiquette as “the correct or acceptable way of communicating on the Internet.”

Merriam-Webster ( http://m-w.com ) defines netiquette as “etiquette governing communication on the Internet.”

Netiquette rules vary, depending on the forum you’re in. For example, email rules are different from when you’re chatting in a live forum. We go into more detail about those differences later in this chapter.