78% of 2,698 people in a VitalSmarts survey report an increase of rudeness online.

Rudeness and insulting behavior are ending friendships and two out of five social media users have cut off contact after an online fight. One in five have reduced face-to-face contact after an online altercation.

Manners lag behind technology and with 67% of online adults now using social media (Pew Study) this is becoming a problem.

Some of the survey respondents said they were still not talking to family members after two years after a fight that resulted from posting an embarrassing photo of a man’s sister when the instigator refused to remove it and in fact sent it to all his contacts for spite.

When people talk about workplace associates on social media, it invariably gets back to the subjects.

There are ways to play nice and play it safe at the same time:

1. When you feel a conversation is getting too emotional to be out there online, it’s time to take it face-to-face.
2. From VitalSmarts:  three rules that could improve conversations online were to avoid monologues, replace lazy, judgmental words, and cut personal attacks particularly when emotions were high.
3. Don’t hit send if what you send cannot be read before a jury in a court of law – this one works for me every time because it forces one to think about how a third party might perceive what is being said.
4. When it doubt, leave it out.

Increasingly our lives are online and on social media sites, there is no Emily Post yet but there is emerging “netiquette”.

“Everything I think of now is too rude to actually say” – Craig Ferguson

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