After discussion of family members and more generations joining things like Facebook, I started to think about all the unspoken etiquette of all the new media and technology that we have. These are things that you learn as you use the media, but it seems that the young adult generations are able to pick up on this etiquette easier than any other generations. I have two prime examples that show this.
My cousin, when she first got a Facebook in 9th grade, hadn’t quite learned some of the appropriate uses of Facebook. She posted on my wall asking if I had heard that my grandma was sick and not doing well. This made me worry and I had to call my parents and get the update. They told me that she was not doing well and that they were waiting to call me until after they had more information and they were sure it wouldn’t interrupt my day. My cousin just seemed to not understand that there are some things that you don’t post on people’s walls, and there are some things that you do not communicate through Facebook. This is one of those etiquettes that is not written anywhere or really spoken about, but it is expected that you know.
At the other end of the spectrum, my aunt got angry at a family member and used Facebook as the place to take out her anger. She used this person’s wall to post a rant with name calling and insults. This is one of those places where you do not try to yell at someone because, firstly, it is very public, but secondly, the person can just delete these posts so it makes no sense.
These are more extreme versions of people not knowing the proper etiquette, but there are a million more examples that I’m sure anyone who uses the sites or technology can come up with. The point is that, how do we learn all of these rules? How is it that some generations catch on faster than others? Is there any way to fix these manner mishaps or do people just have to live and learn?
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