Beyond Netiquette   Reclaiming Civility in the Digital Age

If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. Thanks for visiting!

This blog is devoted to areas “Beyond Netiquette”. For example:

• What elements of pre-digital age approaches to interpersonal communication should be preserved at work, at home and when we’re out socializing?
• How do we raise our kids to appropriately use the phenomenal array of digital gizmos now at their disposal?
• Where have things gotten out of hand in terms of excessive or poor use of digital communication and how do we re-wind in some areas…if it can be done at all?

What makes me a digital manners maven you may ask?  It has a lot to do with my mother. Grilled from an early age in socially appropriate behavior — and I mean rehearsed in manners prior to guests visiting, instructed in scripted phone greetings, badgered over thank-you notes, taught that you catch more flies with honey than vinegar, dressed in white gloves as a small child, taught to sit with my legs crossed at the ankle and sent ponderous Ann Landers and Dear Abbey columns throughout my college years — trust me, I know manners!

I admit to having gone through my own period of manners rebellion, especially in my ardent feminist phase: “How dare you open a door for me! I’m perfectly capable of doing that myself!” I’ve since recovered.

I am also a leadership development professional with a focus on interpersonal communication skills (see http://instillleadership.com/). I spend a great deal of time contemplating the impact of digital immersion on relationships and would dearly like to help us all preserve the civility that fosters positive relationships while still enjoying the vast benefits that technology offers.

- Marla Rosner