Etiquette in communication and way of expression is something that we learn all our lives,  both in private and business one. Fitting in well with a collective is based on  good communication. And all this would be great if we didn’t have digital world meddling in our lives in recent years. Digital world has brought with itself a new form of communication. Unfortunately, etiquette from the real world did not transfer to the digital.

All our lives we ​​learn from parents, schools and society the necessity and ways of complying with certain standards of behavior in dealing with the environment. At different stages of life this teaching is interpreted differently. As youngsters, we blindly believe everything that Mom and Dad say. We learn from them some beautiful, and  some ugly things that they unconsciously slip  through in their everyday speech and conduct.

In teenage age, we become “more clever” and claim that all this is nonsense and that parents do not know anything.

During the studies, we argue that there are social norms that can hamper an individual in the freedom of expression. We do not want to fall into the trap of discipline adopted by the society. The whole world is ours.

Then we turn thirty and figure out that the parents were right, that the society wanted to set some standards that should really be appreciated, and  that the etiquette is something that really teaches you life.

Etiquette in communication and way of expression is something that we learn all our lives, both private and business one. Fitting in well with a collective is based on  good communication.

And all this would be great if we didn’t have digital world meddling in our lives in recent years. Digital world has brought with itself a new form of communication. Unfortunately, etiquette from the real world did not transfer to the digital.

Social networks, blogs, vlogs, forums are just some of the achievements of the digital world. The expansion of the Internet has led to the expansion of this type of communication. Because of the speed of life, as well as of laziness or some other reasons, we have accepted more or less these achievements as a new form of getting information and socializing.

What has all this brought to us?

It has brought us a lot of misinformation. A lot of half-truths and untruths. A lot of  personal and subjective opinions. A lot of  gurus and life coaches, in all aspects. Digital world is not subject to any moral and social norms. People leading peaceful and quiet lives in the real world and trying to be kind to the environment, suddenly in digital world  turn into horrible monsters that no one can stop,and who know everything and can say everything. If you take a sneak peak at any social network or a forum you will see a bunch of NN avatars bickering over the slightest things, at the same time not choosing words or the way of saying something. What they all have in common is the lack of reason.

In the IT and business world in general the situation is not so bad. There are relevant forums and blogs that help us to be adequately informed, if we have a specific problem or wish to educate additionally. The amount of information that can be found on the Internet specifically for IT is crucial for the way we do our business. But of course, not everything here is great. The battle between vendors has switched from the real to digital world, through aggressive marketing, placement of false statistical data, and releasing populist texts with half-truths and untruths about the competition. The Internet is full of self-proclaimed gurus and various “influencers” who are promoting certain individuals and purge others for money.

How to stop this?

I think that the regulations relating communication on the Internet either do not exist or are not respected. Authentication methods are very simple. In this way, people are given the possibility to abuse and create parallel accounts, hide identities and boost other people to behave “arrogantly”on the Internet. I suppose this will have to be regulated differently in the future. Everyone has to make sure who they are communicating with. It is not important whether a document, a fingerprint or an eye apple will be used for authentication, it is essential to improve the authentication process and to increase the safety of all people on the network, thus avoiding the possibility of any fraud.

Another thing are copyrights. They are meaningless on the Internet. There are some pioneering attempts to regulate this, but I fail to see any results in this respect. This is a big problem. By degrading copyrights, art has became degraded (music, film, comics, literature) as well as science (doctorateforgery, academic papers). This crisis is evident and very visible, especially in the sphere of culture and art.

When in the dark Middle Ages, full of dogma, discipline and repression  deep crisis of science and art appeared, humanism and the Renaissance came out as the salvation of mankind. Today’s time is destroying culture and science in a different way. With untruths, half-truths, and ordered marketing campaigns, forgery, astroturfing. We urgently need a new Renaissance, which will put an end to these monsters of the digital age.

It is certain that Renaissance will come very soon with the emergence of appropriate regulations. Humanism and the Renaissance corrected things for almost three centuries. How much will be needed to regulate the Internet at this moment, nobody knows. The way to apply the regulations must be strict and rigorous, but also such that it does not subsume under some kind of censorship and repression.

No matter what, digital world is inevitable and we all have to adapt to it. What we are definitely missing is a digital etiquette that would follow the needs of the digital world but would also preserve the ethics of communication. Let us all give our contribution to this and improve our communication on the Internet. It is not hard to be nice.