Ben Witherington provides us with some obvious, but sometimes ignored rules, On Speaking Privately in Public– on Blogs. He emphasizes not using blogs as a surrogate for developing real personal relationships, that is, in person. I particularly like the following two rules:
- Blogs should not be used for pure exhibitionism. The rule should be– if this is something you would be embarrassed to say in front of a loved one, say for example your mother, you have no business saying it in public.
- Before posting anything, consider that blogs, like emails are a ‘cold medium’. By this I mean, you can seldom tell the tenor of a comment on the internet, its emotional freight. It is hard to discern the difference between irony, sarcasm, or withering criticism on the internet.
Therefore, it is better not to try to be too clever or subtle in such a sphere. Gestures, tone of voice etc. is all part of communication that is largely missing on blogs.
