Smethics

SMETHICS

by Antonio C. Antonio

October 29, 2014

For over a year now, I have been using social media as my main conduit in promoting and popularizing environmental concerns.  I regularly visit (almost daily) social networking sites such as Facebook, Youtube and Blogger.  In this ritual, I’ve ran across a word a few times but it never failed to get my attention.  The word is “smethics”.

Wanting to know what “smethics” meant, I tried searching for the word on the internet and also checked our trusty dictionary at home but the word did not be found.  Initially I thought it could be a frequently misspelled word, a slang or a colloquial term.  Not giving up, I asked other netizens if they are aware of the word.  One of them wrote back to say that the term “smethics” is a combination of three words: “S”ocial, “M”edia and “ETHICS”; therefore, “smethics”.  He went on to say that the term/word simply meant what it says: “ethics in social media”.

Social media are websites and applications that enable users to create and share content (text and images) or participate in social networking.  On the other hand, ethics is a set of moral principles that govern a person’s or group’s behaviour; and a branch of knowledge that deals with moral principles.  Applying these definitions of the words “social media” and “ethics” to social networking activities, the word “smethics” should come to mean: “A set of moral principles and code of conduct that govern the behaviour of netizens in social networking sites”.

I also tried researching for a code of conduct and/or a set of guiding moral principles for social media and was able to come up with the following information on what materials and commentaries should be posted.  I’ve tweaked some materials and information from this link (http://www.digitalstrategyconsulting.com/codeofconduct/) to come up with the following “smethics” guidelines:

1. Write your truths and views clearly but with conscious regard for the feelings and sensitivities of others.
2. Be respectful of others; everyone is entitled to their own opinions.
3. No out-of-topic commentaries; focus on the subject matter.
4. Materials and commentaries that infringes the copyright of another person (plagiarism, or passing off other people’s materials as your own) or copyright material not referenced or acknowledged.
5. Unauthorized posting of personal information (names, address, phone number, email, etc.) of other users.
6. Materials and commentaries that contain vulgar, obscene or indecent language or images.
7. Materials and commentaries which defame, abuse or threaten others; statements and commentaries that are bigoted, hateful or racially offensive.
8. Materials and commentaries that advocates illegal activity or discusses illegal activities with the intent to commit them.
9. No flaming; there is a difference between voicing a legitimate concern or grievance and simply badmouthing or some other form of written abuse of someone.
10. Sincerity breeds trust; people find it hard trusting anonymous, non-identifiable or questionable personalities on social media.

Netizens have to realize that joining social networking sites also has some responsibilities attached to it.  The above guidelines may not be perfect and could have missed out on some other important “do” or “don’t” on social media behaviour.  But they could be a fair start to guide us in posting materials and comments in online discussion forums, blogs and pages.  As a simple measure to remind us, let’s start using this term more often… smethics.

Just my little thoughts…

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