Each week we post an article or paper submitted by a member or "silent participant" of Guyana Caribbean Network. The featured article runs from Monday to Sunday each week. To submit an article for feature of the week contact us at admin@guyanacaribbeannetwork.com This week's feature is brought to you by "Dougan".

Cyber etiquette: Beware what you say. by "Dougan"

When I was asked by BK to pen the feature of the week, I was not sure what to scribe. Several topics came to mind, I saw a great write up on names, I felt that was interesting, but not mine. Then there was the fool who shot himself in the foot, get money get ignorant it seems. But that seems to be a topic already being discussed. So as I was browsing the many forums I am a part of it came to me on what I should write about.

Here is a discussion we have seen too many times. The manner in which people interact on the net to the words that are typed, the invasion of ones privacy, along with the hostility of varying opinions, it's astonishing. Here is a medium that we utilize to communicate and 90% of the time, it's as if we are back in Secondary School. What really brought this topic to mind was a discussion that went awry on another board, and I remember the debate that occurred here recently with Ramesh asking Nuff to return to GNI.

Why are so many boards hostile, and why can't we support each others ventures? I remember when board Admins were members of other boards and frequented them, to say hello, and chat with the other members, many of whom were also members of their own board. What happened to that? Why are Guyanese so hell bent of alienating each others endeavors? Is there some reward down the road for the crab in the barrel mentality? What is the prize for badmouthing and chastising someone else growth? That may be one of those rhetorical questions that receives the "center of the tootsie roll pop treatment" the world may never know.

I recently sat on a Reggae board reading as I tend to do so often. I may hardly post but I constantly read. Strange since that was something my parents could never get me to do as a child. But the older I get (I'm sure Dove is having a chuckle), the more I understand the wisdom of being quiet and observing. On that board, two members got into an argument, and BAM, words were thrown, peoples mothers were called out of their given names. To me this is nonsense. A man disrespects my mother, virtually or in reality, pray I don't run into you, pray that I do not. Some way along the line there is disconnect of social understanding, and proper behavior. People tend to believe well it's just the virtual world it does not matter. Why does it not? In an era in which the way we communicate is gravitating to less of a physical and "intimate" connection, should there not be rules? You have people telling people to kill themselves on youtube, and IM, along with cyber-bullying.

What changes should be made? There should be NONE. The same laws and social understanding that govern our everyday lives should be utilized for the internet. Now I do understand that it's not black and white, but it's a lot less gray than people make it seem to be. My grandfather gave my mother a quote when they were children, and she passed it along to us. In my infantile state of mind I can't remember the core but it went "Beware you go, beware you be, beware what you do, beware who you are with, beware what you say". It has just been something that has stuck with me as I grow. I always follow the rules that what I do, my parents can have pride in, that I have always represented my (sometimes annoying) unique name.

So when I am on the internet I behave as if I am in reality, because common sense dictates that at some point, virtual becomes real. So why not represent yourself, with honor virtually as you do in reality. Why be something else virtually that you are not? Unless the persona one undertakes virtually is your true form, in which case, we end up with the behavior I see so rampant on boards these days. The internet mirrors our lives, and how we view ourselves and how we are viewed by others. What pattern you chose to project is on you. But a relic of the internet are the days, in which in its juvenile state people carried themselves with more character and conviction. Free speech should never outweigh boundaries; competition should never outweigh friendship; ignorance should never outweigh morals and understanding.

Bob Marley said "One Love", Junior Reid said "One Blood", Rodney King said "Can't we all just get along", and We say "One People, One Nation, One Destiny.

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