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Happy New Year!
Jim
10 New Year's Resolutions to Improve Your Online Life
By Victoria Shannon
Special to The Washington Post
Monday, December 29, 1997; Page F15
Since there's not enough in our lives already that we feel we should
improve upon, I take it upon myself to burden you now with online
issues that many of us need to address in the coming year.
So after you tack up the lose-weight dictum on the refrigerator, post
this list on your monitor -- off to the side a little, so you don't
have to stare at it every day. They are my choices for the Top 10 New
Year's resolutions for onliners:
I resolve to answer my personal e-mail promptly.
Boy, am I bad about this. (Ask anyone.) Even worse than I ever was as
a letter correspondent. Is there something special about e-mail that
lets us feel like we're off the hook? Is it because we know e-mail
messages are transferred in the ether that we think they're not real?
My bad habits in this area make me more understanding of the rest of
you who are procrastinators about replying to my e-mail.
But compassion is no excuse. Ignoring e-mail or replying way late is
rude.
I resolve to be an informed online shopper.
This, thankfully, is only a minor challenge for me. I've made many
online purchases after investigating the safety issues and after
comparison shopping. But I've let myself be an impulsive Internet
shopper, too, and I usually regret it. In '98, my motto is "haste
makes waste."
I resolve to deliberately and conscientiously -- not accidentally --
use the Internet for learning.
In this case, I've been a haphazard student (this is nothing new to my
former classmates). I'll stumble onto a piece of fascinating science,
literature or language -- or child-raising, investments or car repair
-- and sit engrossed. It's a bit like channel-surfing, I suppose --
it's a great way to be entertained but, like browsing a dictionary,
the knowledge doesn't usually penetrate into long-term memory.
I think brushing up on my French will be my lesson for the year.
I resolve to learn more about how my computer communicates.
This follows the theory that if you know how something works, you can
make it work far better for you.
Already, I'm not optimistic. Somehow, I know that while I believe in
the concept, I know that the execution is too hard. Besides, I got
into using personal computers when you no longer needed to know
anything about them to make them useful. This may be my greatest
online challenge of the year.
Maybe, perhaps, if I just resolve to learn more about my e-mail
software, I'll feel better.
New Year's is a great time for rationalizations, too, of course.
I resolve, while we're speaking of software, to tweak my settings for
optimal performance.
It's too easy to throw another piece of software on the old hard drive
and never get around to changing the font preferences or adding an
"M0" to the modem initialization string in order to turn the darn
noise off. When I clean out my hard drive (another resolution), I'll
linger on the communications applications and do some nipping and
tucking.
I resolve to pay attention to my writing and use of language when I'm
in an online chat or communicating via e-mail.
Until video becomes standard operating procedure online, we are judged
by our combinations of words, our felicity of expression. Our online
characters and personalities are the sum of the keyboard characters we
use. So use them cleverly and gracefully.
I resolve to be skeptical but not cynical about the information I
receive online.
With as much junk e-mail and "make money fast" missives as we've all
received, this is probably a no-brainer. But there's a more subtle
skepticism that is called for online. Do you know with whom you're
corresponding? Are you certain that a World Wide Web source is
genuine?
It's only money that's at risk in these cases. However, your
credibility is at stake if you are passing along unconfirmed or
suspect information. At least disclose your source, or ignorance of
the source, to those you forward e-mail.
I resolve, speaking of original sources, to respect copyrights.
Well, but of course. You'll feel virtuous when you publish something
online that you want to protect for yourself. But we all need an easy
resolution mixed in with the difficult.
I resolve to pay my "shareware" this year.
I did so one year, and I paid about $100 for a half-dozen or more
communications utilities that I tried out for free and decided to keep
beyond the trial period. But that was at least three years ago, and
I've turned over those tools for some newcomers. It's time to fork
over my fair share.
I resolve to get a life and not hog the computer or phone line.
This is addressed to two categories of onliners: those of you who
plainly spend too much time immersed in a cyberlife to the detriment
of the rest of your existence, and those who overstay your welcome
online and prevent your family or housemates from doing so.
If you tend toward addiction, resolve for more balance this year. If
you tend merely toward absorption, get off-line every once in a while
so the rest of us can get on.
Victoria Shannon can be e-mailed at VShannon on America Online,
CompuServe, MSN and Prodigy.
© Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company
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