Weekly Topics - Week 7: The Quirks of Online Communication

source: Pixabay

In this week’s assignment we’re reading the “Ten Commandments” by Virginia Shea. I’m going to write some thoughts about the second command and its ideas.

The rule goes as follows:

Adhere to the same standards of behavior online that you follow in real life
.

Virginia Shea claims, that in real life, most people follow law-abiding rules either by disposition or because we’re afraid of getting caught. This however does not apply on the internet. The chances of getting caught in the cyberspace seem slim (note: they aren’t).

Shea appeals to be ethical online. Breaking the law is bad netiquette and not ethical. She also says that you should pay for shareware since it encourages more people to write shareware.

I agree with her rule and would like to add, that the chances of getting caught in the cyberspace aren’t as slim as one would think. For once, there are the obvious indices like the username, IP-address, or email-address. But even if you think you leave no trail behind, you are most probably due.

An interesting example for that is a Netflix show I watched recently. It’s called “Don’t F**ck with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer”. 

Source: moviemeter (https://www.moviemeter.nl/film/1127607)

It’s a true crime docuseries from 2019 about an online manhunt. A man committed animal cruelty acts and uploaded them on the internet. A group of activists created a Facebook group and started to privately investigate that man. The group started to examine every inch of a detail in the videos, including the objects in the room, to help solve the mystery. Although they didn’t cause his arrestment (the Canadian and German police did), they found some good clues (his latest location and his name) and were (at the beginning) far ahead of the police. This shows that you’re not as anonymous online as you’d think. The Facebook group consisted of hobby-detectives. A professional investigation would be capable of finding even more clues. However, the internet rule by Shea isn’t about not getting caught; it is about behaving ethical. I think it’s only natural to behave online with the same ethics as in the “real life”, since you’re still you and the people online are regular people who deserve respect.

 

Source: http://www.albion.com/netiquette/rule2.html

 

 

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