Back in the dark dark days of the Internet, there was a culture clash between Usenet and AOL over “me too”. \u00a0Now, in a social media age, “me too” has made its comeback: retweeting on Twitter, “like”ing on Facebook, +1ing on Google Plus.<\/p>\n
Remember that culture clash? \u00a0Usenet culture had a strict etiquette, coining “netiquette” to describe it. \u00a0Netiquette was largely about saving bandwidth in the days of slow and limited dial-up access. \u00a0Read the FAQ, don’t spam, trim replies to only include relevant text, make replies meaningful. \u00a0AOL users, when first let loose out of their walled garden in the mid-90s, didn’t respect that netiquette. \u00a0The calling card of an AOL user1<\/a><\/sup> was adding “me too!” to a thread. \u00a0In nicer forums, this led to a gentle primer in netiquette, but it mostly led to the AOL user being flamed out of existence.<\/p>\n I admit that I was snobby about those AOL users in my Usenet days. \u00a0I failed to see the importance of “me too”. \u00a0“Me too” is an acknowledgement that not only did I hear you, but I agree with you. \u00a0It’s identifying a point of commonality, a shared point of interest. \u00a0No matter how much I want to believe I’m a special snowflake, I also want to have something in common with others. \u00a0I like learning that you read Terry Pratchett too2<\/a><\/sup>, that you listen to Cowboy Junkies, that you think that flour+water is a great restaurant.<\/p>\n It’s only now that bandwidth is plentiful that “me too” has resurfaced. \u00a0The very human desire for connection is ever-present, and it’s now become acceptable in a social media world to acknowledge that need for connection in a lightweight fashion. \u00a0I don’t have to write an essay about why I love Pratchett’s novels, I can simply click a button and let you know that we have this point of commonality.<\/p>\n The pendulum has swung the other way. \u00a015 years ago, I never would have imagined posting “me too”, no matter how strongly I felt that connection. \u00a0Compare that to a meeting I was in last week. \u00a0I was participating in a portfolio review of a candidate, and I asked a question contrasting one of the candidate’s statements with something they had said earlier. \u00a0The person sitting next to me looked up and said that he’d just jotted down a note that he wanted to explore that question more. \u00a0Further down the table, another interviewers raised his hand and said, “plus one”. \u00a0This prompted a couple of others to do the same.<\/p>\n While “me too” is important, there’s also a danger to it. \u00a0Our discourse shouldn’t be limited to simplistic statements of agreement that can be fully captured by the two characters of +1. \u00a0There are times when that essay about why I love Pratchett’s novels is not only welcome but needed. \u00a0Likewise, we need to be able to have a nuanced but respectful discussion about why we disagree on a topic. \u00a0We need to acknowledge our commonality, but such acknowledgement shouldn’t be the only communication.<\/p>\n Back in the dark dark days of the Internet, there was a culture clash between Usenet and AOL over “me too”. \u00a0Now, in a social media age, “me too” has made its comeback: retweeting on Twitter, “like”ing on Facebook, +1ing on Google Plus. Remember that culture clash? \u00a0Usenet culture had a strict etiquette, coining “netiquette” … Continue reading the importance of “me too”<\/span> \n