Kill Reply All

by Victoria Turk

On the internet, no one knows you’re a dog—but that’s no excuse for poor manners.

Any guidance on the correct usage of memes is conspicuously absent from my copy of Debrett’s . .

As technology moves on and customs change, it can be hard to keep up, but the basic pillars of good manners remain the same. Good etiquette means putting other people’s comfort first. It means having empathy and patience, and generally just not being a jerk.

How do you address an email to the Queen? You don’t. You send a snail-mail letter to her private secretary.

If you do have consent, ask yourself one other important question: Do you trust the person you’re sharing images with to respect your privacy? You need to be aware that any images you put online could end up traveling further than you expect. Sending nudes has become particularly popular on “ephemeral” apps like Snapchat, where messages disappear after being read, but even here, the recipient can screenshot or otherwise make a copy without your knowledge. Ann Olivarius, a lawyer who specializes in fighting for women’s rights, warns about “revenge porn”—a term that describes when someone (often a vengeful ex) shares explicit images without your permission, for example posting them on social media or messaging them to other people. “Usually when people are about to do this, they don’t stop and think, ‘What if he takes these pictures and puts them on the internet when we break up?’” she says.