Has the world of social media grown so big and so quickly that the rules and protocols haven’t quite caught up?
What’s acceptable? What’s not? Where are the lines drawn?
Well, to answer this let me pose some questions.
- Is it OK for your boss to ask to be your friend on Facebook?
- As a ‘40 something’ married man, would it be ‘weird’ if one of your daughter’s school friends started following you on Twitter and you her? Is it less ‘weird’ if she initiated the contact?
- Would you modify your normal activity on your Facebook profile if you knew some of your company’s customers, who are friends of yours, were watching your posts?
- Is it standard practice to say no to a work colleague who asks to follow you on Twitter?
- Do you have to think about what you write on a personal blog in case your boss sees it or is your blog your personal business?
- If a prospective employer asked to look at your Myspace page during an interview would you be freaked out by that?
- What would your parents think of the content of your Facebook page?
If you baulked at any of these questions or found yourself struggling to answer one or two then you’ve confirmed my theory.
We aren’t quite sure about the ethics of social media, just as we are uncertain about what’s acceptable and what isn’t.
So, should we, the online community, attempt to draw up some ‘rules’ and guidelines or should we let prevailing community standard sort it all out?
Surely, the answer has to be that we have figured out the rules of engagement for social interaction in all other areas in life, so why shouldn’t the same apply to social media?
Maybe?
But let me leave you with another question to ponder:
We’ve had hundreds of years to develop skills in the area of social interaction on a face to face level. We’ve had since the late 1800’s to learn telephone etiquette. But, we’ve only had a handful of years to learn how to deal with each other in the social media. Is that enough?
What about a rule for approaching people you’ve seen on the internet?