The internet changes quickly. Having so many people connected and so many opportunities to socialise in anonymity, a whole range of quirks gain popularity and fade away within the etiquette of internet culture. This can make it seem daunting if you’re trying to promote a product or get your voice heard, because people can seem to respond is obscure ways, or use a whole different language – incorporating slang, pictures and irony – to give their thoughts. Here are some staples of chatroom ethos.
If you’ve been the victim of trolling then you might not even know it. Trolling involves posting a statement, or question which is tailored to induce conflict i.e. posting an incorrect statement on the type of car under a picture of a car on an auto enthusiasts’ message board. The success of the troll is determined by how strongly the person responds to your bait. It sound stupid, and perhaps that’s with good reason, but it’s a standard way of showing authority in a chatroom despite anonymity, because people that have been their longer won’t get caught out by the trolls.
Memes are something that first cropped up in The Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins. The concept behind them is that people attach value to certain ‘units of ideas’ more that others. The units are called ‘memes.’ In the internet people use stock acronyms, pictures and jokes again and again as a shorthand for larger ideas, or to simply be part of a scene. It means a language is created that constantly incorporates more material at an alarming rate, quickly discarding old material once it become too popular.
Thins spread quickly on the internet, and in the face of these bizarre constructions of internet etiquette it can seem hopeless if you’re trying to get a real point across, or trying to protect the reputation of a product. Something that can help with his is ORM – or Online Reputation Management – which allows the cultivation of good feedback and an attempt to police or subdue the bad.
There are things you can do, but mostly we just have to accept that the internet is the way it is, and shows language and society at perhaps its most quickly evolving phase.
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