The ker­fuf­fle over the week­end with Stephen Fry threat­en­ing to leave Twit­ter made me think about behav­iour online.  As our national trea­sure Mr Fry him­self recog­nises, the ensu­ing cir­cus was out of all pro­por­tion but it did serve as a reminder…

1)      There are real peo­ple behind each user­name, whether famous or not, they have feelings.

2)      Don’t say any­thing online you wouldn’t be will­ing to say in person.

3)      Think before you com­ment. Is it nec­es­sary? Is it kind?

The beauty of social media is a shar­ing of knowl­edge and ideas. And, arguably, by putting your­self out there you are putting your­self up for poten­tial judge­ment. Not every­one will like what you’re doing or agree with all your ideas (how dull would that be?!) but let’s dis­cuss and be con­struc­tive. There is too much temp­ta­tion to jump on peo­ple and hide behind our screens. I pulled myself up ear­lier hav­ing com­mented on the Rooney’s choice of name for their baby; it tick­led me but I’d be mor­ti­fied if I thought they’d seen some of the com­ments and been hurt by it.

There’s lots of good too. I have seen so many instances of sup­port and gen­eros­ity on Twit­ter so know that net­works can be a great source of pos­i­tiv­ity. The longer I hang out the more I think that behav­iours and per­son­al­i­ties are ampli­fied online, for good or bad. Seth Godin says Twit­ter is High School; it’s an inter­est­ing point.