Translated from the German original. Read the original in German.
Many greybeards still remember the early days of the internet well.
Usenet, mailing lists, email distribution lists – and a term that was taken for granted back then: netiquette.
Netiquette stood for something very simple and, at the same time, fundamental:
courtesy, respect, consideration. The understanding that there is a human being behind every post. And the recognition that words have an impact in the digital space too.
In the 1990s, netiquette was even written down – for instance in the IETF’s Netiquette Guidelines. Not as a sermon, but as pragmatic guard rails for constructive communication in a new digital world.
Today, three decades later, an uncomfortable question arises:
Has netiquette been lost on the internet?
On social media in particular, mutual appreciation often seems to take a back seat. Polemic beats argument, noise replaces principle, outrage displaces respect. Regard for the person behind the opinion is increasingly becoming the exception.
Perhaps it is time to remember something we knew long ago:
Good digital communication is not an algorithm problem – it is a matter of attitude.
