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Facebook filters into real life, Part 1

By Michael Barnes | Monday, December 22, 2008, 12:13 PM

The evidence is everywhere: Facebook decorum has filtered out to face-to-face encounters.

As opposed to their progenitors, second-generation social media — Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc. — encourage civility, congeniality and respect. Increasingly, I’m encountering just that sort of social chemistry at openings, parties and clubs. And this brand of socializing often begins with announcements such as “Hey, I follow your tweets!” or “Oh yeah, I know you from Facebook! How did that heart surgery go?”

First-generation social media — e-mail, discussion boards, chat rooms — often spread social poison. The main reasons are obvious: Anonymity and pseudonymity. One could “flame” with impunity as long as nobody knew who you really were. Combine that with an inability to ascertain precise emotional tones in digital exchanges, and one could be forgiven for avoiding all chat rooms and keeping e-mail conversations short and to the point.

Which I have done.

Whenever I see an e-mail longer than a paragraph, I flinch. Will I be in for another endless, irreducible rant? Will I lose another friend to late-night ravings?

Fearing this social hemlock, I also carefully manage the comments, often posted pseudonymously, on my Out & About blog. No insults. No overt hostility.

Although I will allow strong opinions, like a recent post that called a group of restaurant owners “creeps,” then backed up the claim with previously documented evidence. (I still like the joint anyway, which should be OK in a civil sphere.)

More to come …

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By Bob Madden

December 22, 2008 4:14 PM | Link to this

I agree with your comment that the anonymous vehicles for posting sometimes foster vitriol and hatred on an alarming scale. Through the cloak of screen name anonymity some people feel empowered to spew barbs that would likely remain masked in a person to person setting. Though this may make me sound archaic I miss the old days when an opinion submission to a public newspaper or periodical required a full name.