Post 7: Final Thoughts

This blogging experience has been refreshing in terms of a project. I found it a blast being able to blog about items relating to topics of particular weeks. I was able to expand my views from the discussion board posts and from the writing activities. I believe that courses like this should offer the option to blog about course related material and integrate it with personal findings, thoughts, and revelations. It is a new take on how to approach a course project. I will not divulge too much about my blogging experience here, so that I can leave room for content in my blog evaluation paper. This was a nice change from having to write a research paper or do some project that was repetitive and mundane. I'm glad this opportunity was offered to me because I enjoy blogging.

As a bit of conclusion to my blogging experience I wanted to focus on the topic that we first learned about, which was that of Netiquette. I feel that this is an extremely important aspect of computer mediated communication and these guidelines of netiquette should be taught and practiced by everyone who communicates via technology. It is difficult sometimes to remember all of the rules: think first, be concise, know the audience, etc. (Scheuermann & Taylor, 1997), but for the most part the rules are simple and easy to follow. Netiquette can be tied into the aspect of self-presentation, online anonymity and exposure, cyber-bullying, computer mediation of interpersonal relationships, and CMC in business; you can virtually apply a rule or two many areas of CMC.

My favorite rule is that of 'think first' which could easily include 'know your audience'. This rule could be seen as the golden rule of netiquette, think before you post, think about the context in which you will be interpreted, think about how you are presenting your self to an audience that may not know you, think about your audience (will they understand what you're saying? will you offend them?), think about what this could do to your relationship(s) and your future endeavors. Some of those examples may seem extreme and oOoOOo life changing but in this day and age you've got to watch yourself and protect yourself from....yourself. It can be difficult to criticize everything thing you do online but in the end it can save you from a lot of damage that can be caused.

Scheuermann, L. & Taylor, G. (1997). Netiquette. Internet Research: Electronic Networking Applications and Policy, 7, 269-273.