CIVILITY ON THE INTERNET
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Civility on the Internet
Civility is the act of being civilized (particularly politeness or curtesy). It can also be defined as a polite expression or act. Civility actually goes past attentive listening and good manners. It actually involves value and beliefs sharing with other people through some kind of interaction with an aim of genuine respect towards each other (Thiranagama, Kelly and Forment, 2018, p 5). Civility also include open mindedness and willingness to have our biases and opinions opposed by other people who have a unique and completely different viewpoint and perspectives. To act in a civilized manner, individuals must deeply understand their own feelings and emotions. Knowing and understanding our emotions always Help in recognizing how we feel and give us a higher capability to have compassion. Being civil is acting in a manner that do not disrupt order (Thiranagama, Kelly and Forment, 2018, p 5). It entails showing good manners and being polite to others. Bing civil is basically to care. It is to care for your society and the flourishing and dignity of each person in it, irrespective of comfortability and difficulty of that act. Civility is also to identify interrelation of current life and be responsible for yourself as an interrelated being who will identify consequences in their actions. Since many discussions are always being raised in the internet, civility must always be practices to minimize offending of other users.
Civility on the internet is being respectful and polite to others irrespective of what you think of them. There must be complete politeness portrayed in order to called civilized in an internet setting. A civilized person in the online setup is capable of acting to situations ore effective and thoughtful (Santana, 2014, 18). They will be able to Help new associates and friends to feel they are accepted and to adopt the sense of belonging. Civilized people will always keep their requests concise and to the point when the need help from other. They are also attentive to the territories of other people. They are always ready admit their mistakes and ask for apology when they are at fault. The internet suggest anonymity and hide variations in which modern people are. Many people in the internet always do and say things that they cannot do in flesh. Civility is very important in the internet as it encourages harmony and unity. Many people use internet to air their views, unity is encouraged when these views are responded to without showing disrespect to that person. Civility on the internet is very important since a civilized people will always treat other people with a lot of respect and dignity irrespective of the forum they are participating (Santana, 2014, 25). They treat others as they would like themselves to be treated.in so doing, they leave those they interrelate with feeling of uplifted and edified rather than anger and depression. Incivility exist in the internet because of the insecurity online in terms internet cyber bullying. People will always blame other online users when their IP address is copied since no one really understands what other people does online. So many things do happen when there is a chance of being anonymous. Incivility also exist because of the hidden identity of the users.
Civility can be recovered online by perceiving every internet user as a real person. People always forget that there are others using internet. They only see their screens and their houses. Faces of the people who will be reading what they write in the internet appear nebulous and unreal (Santana, 2014, 20). These people are out there and what an individual say can really hurt them badly. So, whenever an individual is writing something, they should always put in mind that the readers of their posts are real people. Second, online users should learn not to say something to others online that they cannot say to them when they are talking face to face. This should be one of the very significant online interaction rules. This will reduce the level of anger and bitterness in the internet. Another way of recovering online civility is by disclosing real names of the internet users. When people use their real names in the internet, they will always think before posting or saying something in the internet. People do not like associating bad images with their real names therefore, they will try as much as they can to use proper respectful language when whenever they are posting something online (Hollis, 2016, 10). If someone says something to you that provoke your anger, either say something positive to the person or do not respond at all. This shows high level of civility as it will minimize online conflict.
Civility in places of work is described as the overall impacts and importance of observing good etiquette and political correctness in places of work. It is the act of addressing main causes of discourtesy in workplaces. It also involves knowing the behavioral signs of incivility and its consequences. Incivility at work can be evident in three ways. First one is interpersonal incivility. It occurs when an individual impolite to the other. For instance, your manager refusing to thank you for the good thing you did to him is an interpersonal incivility (Hollis, 2016, 15). Cyber incivilities can also manifest in workplaces. Cyber incivility is an uncivil conduct displayed in computers such as texts, emails, and even communications through social media. Instance of cyber incivility include sending of terse or blunt emails, not responding to other people’s mails, and sending messages that are time sensitive through email. Due to high adoptions of new technologies and smartphones, cyber incivilities are highly increasing in workplaces. Alternatively, incivility can be victimless, whereby the uncivil act has no direct victim. Or the act does not instantly affect another person. For example, throwing garbage next the trash can without picking it up. There are several forms of incivility manifesting in working environments (Hollis, 2016, 15). One significant way of establishing a civil environment for working is advice management to set a strong example. The supervisors and managers should Help in creating a respect and civility culture by molding a civil behavior. When a manager breaks social rules for respect and curtesy, employees the employees may see this as an indicator that being disrespectful is acceptable.
In conclusion, the internet incivility has been rapidly growing in the current years. The act is mainly exhibited by people showing disrespect to the ideas of others. Some may even respond rudely to the post of others. The is growing in the internet mainly because of hidden identity. Someone does or say something online which he/she cannot do when they are having a face-to-face conversation (Thiranagama, Kelly and Forment, 2018, 5). Conflicts and arguments in the internet are always created due to incivility. People should always strive to be civil on the internet to reduce conflicts and arguments in the internet. To maintain democracy and to establish the sense of acceptance and belonging in the interne, civility must be fully practices.
References
Hollis, L.P., 2016. The Importance of Professor Civility in a Computer-Based Open-Access Environment for a Minority-Serving Institution. In The Coercive Community College: Bullying and its Costly Impact on the Mission to Serve Underrepresented Populations. Emerald Group Publishing Limited.
Santana, A.D., 2014. Virtuous or vitriolic: The effect of anonymity on civility in online newspaper reader comment boards. Journalism practice, 8(1), pp.18-33.
Thiranagama, S., Kelly, T. and Forment, C., 2018. Introduction: Whose civility?.
