Electronic Right Speech

In electronic communication, there are two additional factors to keep in mind, besides the ones we're familiar with from older media:

• It's well recognized that somehow electronic communication invites "flaming"; it's easier on a list to speak extremely.

• Fewer people are aware that the reverse is true too: we perceive messages as having more emotional content in this medium; they have a much heavier effect here than they do in either in print or in person. Pithily expressed thoughts, for example, can easily come off as offensive.

It's easy to understand that e-communication lacks signals we give in person; emoticons [like :-) ] are an attempt to add some of them back. But why language we would relish in a book is offensive in email, is a puzzle.

• Perhaps it has to do with the difference Marshall McLuhan observed between books, film and TV : the greater amount of information in TV transmission, although subliminal, allows more passive watching, while film with its fewer frames per second engages us more — and books require even more participation.

• Does email engage us even more, to the point where we project our attachments/aversions onto the message?

In any case, it's important to use temperate language in email, and to avoid brusqueness. Even jokes often don't communicate well without the presence of the teller. Think about how your words are likely to be received.

Finally, as you read email messages, remember that this is an information-limited medium. The emotions you are reading may be your projections.

There's much more that could be said about "netiquette." For example, see

• Arlene Rinaldi on Netiquette.
• The UUA Email List User's Guide: List Etiquette.

For more thoughts on Right Speech, see also...

• Some original Buddhist texts on Right Speech
• The Value of Rules and Kindness — thoughts from list manager Sam.
• Right Speech as Dance: suggestions from UUBF-L members on how to handle conflict on list.
• Writing as Practice
• Respecting Copyright on the UUBF-L
• Gurus, Professors and Prophets: why certain behaviors are inappropriate on list. By UUBF-L member George Buchanan.
• A Code of Courtesy and Kindness
• The UUA Email List User's Guide: Rules for Participating.