Joy of Access: The Word Made Flesh

Almost all discussions on the net take place via the written word. There is experimental software that transfers voice, and even video, across the net for two-way communications, but these require state-of-the-art computer equipment and a fast net connection. You have neither, and the vast majority of the people you’ll be interacting with also have neither. (You can, of course, download Quicktime or Realvideo and get one-way transmissions in a tiny window on your video screen.)

What you look like is what you write. Nobody on the net can see your pimples, your bleached blond hair, your abs, or your BMW. All they see is what you type. So take care that what you type is what you mean.

“When you say something, make sure you have said it. The chances of your having said it are only fair.”—E.B.White

He wrote about pigs and spiders, so he knows what he’s talking about.

Your writing style is how you will be perceived. On the net, clothes don’t make the man: verbs do. And adjectives, participles, and gerunds. You may decide you’ll want to use a spelling checker on everything you send out to the net. Or you may not. It depends on the image you want to present.

The language of the net is English. This makes sense. At 275 million native speakers, it is behind only Mandarin Chinese, and the Chinese government is not very amused by the freewheeling nature of the Internet.

We will no doubt see more languages used as more people come on board, but today, its your English comprehension skills that are the most important. If you want to be a good global netizen, you’ll need to be able to comprehend written English. Otherwise you’re going to end up flaming the wrong people and getting flamed unnecessarily.

If you don’t understand English, make it obvious and we might take it easy on you…

And this isn’t to say that you can’t find regional discussions in just about any language you want. I’m part of a bilingual comic book discussion, French and English.