Netiquette and TEFLers
Please don’t Ask Auntie Alex if you have specific questions about netiquette, because I remain the least technology aware of all TEFL bloggers and proud of it (or so I tell myself when I stand in front of my mirror doing my daily self-affirmation routine). What interests me is that there are several interesting parallels to TEFL theory that could hopefully help to illuminate things.
The most obvious one is the prescriptivist/ descriptivist distinction, just like grammar. If someone tells you that “Almost everyone does this, but it isn’t good netiquette”, that’s obviously the former, but as with grammar/ spelling/ punctuation we are all more prescriptivist than we’d like to admit. Then again, many grammar prescriptions did become part of the language as it is spake and so that certainly means that referring to experts (Elements of Online Style??) to decide what is and what is good online form serves a role. Another similarity is that people who have put in the effort to learn and use the rules get irritated as hell that people can use the exact same language/ internet without a care in the world, making major boo boos without even noticing or caring. I’ve noticed the same thing in myself since reading Bill Bryson’s Dictionary of Troublesome Words (big mistake!)
Another parallel has more to do with moving abroad. Do you read your Culture Shock East Timor before you set off? When you get there, do you hold back until you have worked out what you should and should not do, or is your philosophy that getting stuck in and stepping on a few toes is the quickest way to learn? Or perhaps your philosophy is that you don’t expect recently arrived foreigners to “do in Rome” in your country, so perhaps the locals shouldn’t expect that from you and at least meet you halfway. Again, the people who read all the books and can never quite relax on holiday because they are being so careful not to show their shoulders in Thailand can get rather irritated with the blithe spirits.
(Brief aside- Has no one ever thought about Culture Shock Internet as a title, I wonder?)
The other concept we should all be familiar with is “speech communities”, and I see no reason why “netiquette communities” shouldn’t describe reality just as well. “Fanny” doesn’t mean the same in America and the UK (tries to hold childish giggles in) and grammar words don’t have the same meaning for the two different communities that are linguists and TEFLers, and there doesn’t seem to be any reason why netiquette shouldn’t be different in the community (ies?) of TEFL bloggers to how it is in the original online communities of techies.
And my point is?
None at all, just found it interesting and getting things down helped me get my ideas in order. I’ll leave the coherent arguments up the rest of you, but I’m pretty sure spreading arguments from other blog posts is bad netiquette, so let’s keep things theoretical here shall we?
December 13th, 2009 at 1:00 pm
I feel constricted by all this netiquette. I’d like to propose that we adopt Dogiquette instead – a form of netiquette which you devise ad hoc in response to the blog post. If the post is haughty and abusive, then a felicitous response would involve an iterative recourse to the vernacular, whereas if it’s politer than the Queen’s handshake, then a proportionately greater use of modals might well be more appropriate in your reply.
December 13th, 2009 at 6:07 pm
Hi Alex,
It does seem to be rather a moving target defining netiquette – perhaps there are some generally agreed guidelines and then areas that individuals decide upon according to their own criteria (which is often not transparent to all). As the idea of ‘community’ does usually mean subjectivity in all other areas of life, then why not in blogging? There is a lot written on the subject, none of it universally agreed upon, and certainly none of it really being able to claim 100% certainty or truth.
I wonder really in something as fast moving as the WWW and blogging, will it be possible to pin it all down? Probably not, so for now I guess we will just have to take a case-by-case approach and discuss it if and when it comes up.
December 14th, 2009 at 7:19 am
I think it’s a good question, and a tricky one, since the Internet world is so young and evolving so rapidly that reading a book or two about netiquette is probably going to be of significantly less value than reading Culture Shock East Timor. But ultimately, as with going to a new country, whether people adopt the read, listen, hold back wait and see policy or the jump in and adapt according to response, they are going to succeed – because both approaches are the ones adopted by someone who genuinely wants to learn and is open minded. The problems are encountered by and with people who are not open minded, not prepared to adapt, and not aware of themselves as products of culture too.
Ultimately, I suspect, it comes down to personality as much as anything, and your personality will out on the net just as much as it will out in real life. If you are an arrogant and pompous person, you will come across as one, eventually.
(*Please note: I have carefully and specifically chosen the words arrogant and pompous here because they do not – to my mind- describe the behaviour or apparent personality of anyone involved in last week’s stramash. So anyone wondering “Who is he talking about?” The answer is no-one. It’s a non-specific example to illustrate the request for theoretical points)
December 14th, 2009 at 9:56 am
I was so glad to read this post. Yes, I’m sure you’re right that there are parallels in TEFL theory to illuminate international netiquette issues.
I think ELF, pragmatics and politeness theories might be prime examples. The ELF debate illustrates conflicting prescriptivist/descriptivist approaches. Pragmatics and politeness theories shed light on universal dilemmas of human-to-human interaction.
I think something we know from ELF is that being accommodating and letting things pass often seems to work in practice. And something we know from pragmatics and politeness theories is people have conflicting constraints –so they need to praise, thank, compliment etc, but at the same time they can’t impose, interfere or pass too much judgment.
Andy makes an important point when he says that ultimately it comes down to personalities and open minds. My hunch is those best equipped to survive may be those who are inclined to be conservative in the messages they send and liberal about the messages they receive.
PS Sputnik, I don’t know who you are, but you crease me up
December 14th, 2009 at 12:46 pm
Thanks for your comments guys. I laughed out loud Sputnik’s idea, but surely the name should be “Dogmikette”??
December 14th, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Dogmikette – yes, that’s much better. Presumably the book would be ‘Wireless Etiquette’…?
December 14th, 2009 at 4:05 pm
Interesting topic of discussion, Alex… and I have been scratching my own head for similar reasons.
I quite liked Jeremy Harmer’s round up (and expert handling of some pretty fired up TEFLers last week) and his basic appeal for people to remember their manners. That’s what did it for me.
Offline, online, manners matter.
~ J
December 14th, 2009 at 8:58 pm
Hi Alex
I guess I missed the fireworks last week (and you’re all too well brought up to tell me where to look).
Talking of netiquette, Alex, I understand that when I joined Twitter a few weeks ago, it left you as the only one of us to hold out from the twittering black hole. But just in case you’re wavering, I should tell you I got my fingers burnt last week with some twittiquette clangers.
A couple of nice people tweeted one of my blog posts (something I’d been too busy to do myself) so I thanked them both (publically) and included a link to my post in both my tweets (I felt I should contribute something at least to the twitterverse).
But about 5 minutes later I read in a blog that I’d committed the most heinous of crimes. Thanking in public. Twice. And including a link! How evil of me! Apparently twittiquette demands that you just jabber on about who-knows-what all the time.
I guess there will always be someone who get offended by what others write or don’t write, which makes it pretty tempting not to bother at all. But I suppose if we just use a bit of common sense (like Vicki’s excellent advice above) – don’t set out to offend, try not to take offence – we’ll find that it is worth it.
If that makes any sense …