Tuesday, May 27, 2008

Things you wouldn't say to the person face to face...

One of the cardinal rules of email etiquette is, "Don't say anything by email that you wouldn't say to the person's face."
This gets tricky on blogs.
I have that neat little "Live Traffic" widget from Feedjit that lets me know how people are arriving on my page and where they go when they leave.
I've had people come here from all kinds of Google searches. Quotes, books, lines I wrote that apparently matched quotes they were looking for (i.e. "those votes won't count for anything"), etc.
Well, since I already know one author Googled her own book and ended up on my blog, I felt rather worried when I saw the search: klam "please excuse my daughter" because my blurb--actually more of a "bl" than a whole blurb--might be hurtful if the author was the one doing the search. ["Please Excuse My Daughter-Julie Klam (Memoir)--DONE B (A fun and frank memoir, but not a whole lot of substance. Kind of an ordinary rich girl's life.)]
So that brings me back to etiquette. How do you know what you might say to someones face if you don't know that you might have to do so? Does that make sense?
I mean I know anything I have said about Hellary here, I would say to--nay, scream at--her face given the chance. And obviously anything nice here is something I would say to any given person's face. But how do you know in what way a person a person will receive what you say when you fling it into (cyber)space?
Well, Ms. Klam, if you ever do read this, for the record, I very much enjoyed your book and read it in a couple of sittings. Maybe because I related so much to your situations--except the wealthy parents part--they seemed ordinary to me, or maybe your life is very ordinary, but you write well enough to make it interesting. Who knows?
And if I'm just being overly empathetic for no real, good reason, well then, I'm just being "ordinary" for myself.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm glad that you are thinking about how what you write is taken by those who read it....but Kayly, really...I've never known you to say anything (or write anything) that you wouldn't say to the person's face. LOL..OK, admittedly there were times when I WISH you hadn't, but I've always admired your ability to do that. As much as I dislike Hill, I'm sure that if I met her I'd be polite...and it would kill me then and later. I wish I was as assertive and straight forward as you are. Don't know how you got there....you must have come preprogramed for it because you didn't get it from me....but can you GIVE it to me?
Love,
Mom

Historical Wit said...

Interesting thoughts. I used to worry about that, but really don't care anymore, I guess. At some point I just got into a mode of writing. I am pretty non offensive, more of a reader than a speaker, but I cna sling it. I got no problems speaking in front of people or expression face to face. But I never think about those words after I write them. I guess I should.

Sorry for the jumble, you got my head scrambled on a monday am.

You might also like these:

Related Posts with Thumbnails