becauseinternet21

[becauseinternet21]

I think this example of netiquette shows how using an entirely different platform can convey tone. In this post, it shows how Twitter is usually used more for quick little posts whereas Facebook is meant for more meaningful posts.

A Lesson in Netiquette #155: Treating Facebook like Twitter

…. And we’re back!

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything, but today I found real motivation to post a lesson in netiquette. The motivation? My roommate. As I was walking back into our apartment, I hear a roar from Mike’s (let’s just call him) room. He is yelling at him computer, saying:

“I DON’T CARE THAT YOU JUST GOT BACK FROM STARBUCKS!!”

A little rash, but I think we can glean a valuable lesson from this..

Don’t post on Facebook that some guy in front of you just gave you a dirty look, save that stuff for tweets.

Facebook said it right, by having “What’s on your mind?” as the caption, instead of “Tell me what you are doing right this second.”

Post photos of Facebook “tweeters!”

I’ll be back soon, going to check if Mike threw his computer through the wall.

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Gretchen McCulloch

Because Internet author says that “informal writing happens in near real time… you need to express your emotions in writing while you’re still in the grip of them”. She points out that something as simple as punctuation can be attributed to the typographical tone of voice, but In recent years, the use of punctuation has slowly died out. When was the last time you used a period to end a text message? Instead, people started using the margins of the text bubble to show that they are done with a sentence. Internet etiquette, or as it is better known, netiquette, is constantly changing and being influenced on multiple platforms.

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A user on Tumblr’s linguatumbla, a page that discusses dialect on tumblr, pointed out how people have created ways to convey tone without literally saying what they mean, and it has somehow become a common knowledge between most internet users. This is another reason Tumblr is so interesting in the topic because of this shared knowledge that has spread through the platform.

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Using punctuation in online settings has slowly died out in informal writing. On social media people found other ways to show the end of a sentence or if it is a question. Punctuation has become a way to show emphasis in sentences in informal writing. Check out this Tumblr post from years ago

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*sparklers* and ~waves~

Recently, a trend of putting ~waves~ around words was reignited on TikTok. This was being used to show italics and a change of tone in a sentence. Captions on videos were saying “Wow we really just did ~that~. The waves being used to show different emphasis on certain words. Sparklers have been used in the past to show actions like *runs to the store for candy* instead of saying “I am running to the store”. More recently, I have seen people on Tumblr and other platforms to also show emphasis on their words and help them stand out. I have also seen this be used to replace italics.

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Internet Politeness

In relation to tone indicators, people online often use acronyms to make their messages softer, and kinder. Starting off a message by saying “btw” (by the way) or “imo” (in my opinion) are ways of politely changing the subject or inserting your own opinion in a situation that makes it seem like you aren’t interrupting the recipient. I find myself ending almost every message with “lol” just to give the message a more lighthearted tone, a trend that many of my friends also use. Another way to show politeness over text is to include an emoji, or more recently a text emoji such as “:)”. Using real emojis like the laughing face have become somewhat stigmatized recently (another example of how netiquette is constantly changing).

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Tumblr is a very different type of platform when it comes to informal writing. Why? Because people on Tumblr took a more literal turn in expressing your emotions online. Rather than leave posts open to interpretation, people on Tumblr will add tone indicators to the end of their posts such as /j to show that the post is a joke. Tone indicators started because some people have trouble trying to decipher exactly what a person is saying through an online medium. This is something people still struggle with today as many misunderstandings, at least on my end, have come from misinterpreting the tone of a message.

This photo is from a user who explained what tone indicators are and how to use them.

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no cap, ALL CAPS

Using all caps while online is largely used to indicate strong feelings in your text. Consider the difference between posting “OMG CONGRATS THATS SO EXCITING” vs posting “omg congrats thats so exciting”. I read the first one with more feeling and intent whereas the other one seems like it really isn’t that meaningful. This understanding of tone can be traced all the way back to the 1980s on UseNet threads where one user explained that using capital letters is a way to make words look louder. Gretchen Mcculloch points out in her book Because Internet that all caps are used to make certain words and phrases stand out when there was a lack of formatting options to show emphasis.

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Intro

Everytime you read a text or post online, there is a certain tone that you read from it, and this tone is different for everyone. Most people read the “K” text as a response to your message as offensive or dismissive. Younger generations seem to have more of a handle on how to express emotions through a block of text because many of us grew up in a world where we used text-only platforms to interact with people. Because of this, we had to collectively come up with a way to textually convey these emotions, whether that be through the use of emojis or all caps, it seems to be constantly changing. Where did these tone indicators start? Are there any universal signs of tone on the internet? And if so, how did it spread and become common knowledge? These are questions I intend to explore through the next series of posts.