Text distress?  OKCupid confusion?  Have you been vaguebooking?  It’s perfectly normal to feel adrift in a world of digital etiquette.  When phones were invented, society went through the same issues. Identify yourself when you call, don’t yell into the receiver, avoid putting your partner on hold forever.  Telephone etiquette was clearly delineated across mass media—print, radio, and screen.

Fast forward to now.  Enter computers; enter cell phones; and enter those naughty little cell phone cameras.  We have myriad communication platforms which can be used in any combination of ways to embarrass ourselves or offend our peers.  There is no mainstream rulebook for this.  We are a fractured nation of subcultures, getting information and social cues from thousands of sources.  It’s a confusing time, to say the least.

We humans are social creatures who love and need structure.  When we talk to each other, we need rules for how to do it, in order to interpret unspoken signals and demonstrate that we know our place in society, and how to communicate within it.  Sandy is here to answer your questions, dear hearts, bestowing a bit of light on that fuzzy, gray world of digital social interactions.  Let the requests flow in!

Address your advice request to Digital Etiquette at sandythezine@gmail.com.
Sign-off Acronyms Needed, Darling You.

xo,
suzymae & SANDY