In this blog we will be reviewing an article written by Pamela Livingston. The article that she wrote is called Students Talk to a Favorite Author. This author is Mary Pope Osborne who writes children books. The interesting part of this article is that it is a tool for those who have not had the opportunity to participate in online discussions. As in any context or situation there is always an etiquette to follow. That is what this article written by Pamela Livingston is about. She goes over in great depth the way one should behave when participating in an online discussion by talking about how one might perceive your gestures online. For example if you were to type all CAPS while addressing someone they might perceive that as you yelling at them. She also wanted the kids to know that when you ask a question you might not get a response back right away like when your having a face to face conversation. The reason for that is that many questions are being asked at one time to the participant and they have to multitask these questions as they were received to make sure they all get responded to. Overall I thought it was a good article to the demographic it was written to. These were all things many avid users of the technology would know but to those who weren't, it is useful information. The last thing you want to do is offend someone while involved in an online conversation because it does lack the face to face situation where tone is set by the typing and not your voice or body language. Food for thought questions:
1: If your question seemed to have been overlooked what would the polite way be to re-ask it without coming off sounding rude?
I think you would just say as politely as possible that your question had been overlooked and reiterate it.
2: Depending on the setting say personal /professional is there anything you would suggest be done for both setting? (for instance you wouldn't use internet chat slang in a professional setting.)
Always be respectful of the other and use correct spelling because it can come across as you being perceived as unintelligent and no one wants to be thought as that.
3: What if the person is from another country/culture/language than you are from or speak? What would you be expected to do as making it comfortable for both the individuals involved?
Learn other peoples customs as far as typing/chatting. If your the one starting the conversation go by their traditions if you can. In spanish speaking countries when laughing they use jajajaja instead of the english hahaha. It's these subtle things that can make someone feel more comfortable and they will know your trying to be sincere.
