My significant half succumbed to the lure of Facebook recently which is quite a surprise since he was quite determined at first not to open an FB account. So far, his FB activities are very minimal; accepting friends' request, adding a few friends, updating status once in a blue moon, commenting on others' statuses once in a while and to date has only uploaded 3 photos. What a contrast to the wifey . Almost everyday I update my status, commenting on people's statuses/walls/photos sesuka hati, uploaded numerous photos, wrote several notes and posted quite a few links.
Anyhow, I scanned through his wall one day. Well, I have been scanning his page once in a while checking who has been added to his friends' list, who commented on his status etc etc etc... Stalker ke ni? And I noticed our mutual friend commenting on his wall. But my hubby did not respond to the comment.
So I asked him, 'Tak jawab ke si polan punye comment tu?
'Kena jawab semua comment ke?' he answered by asking a question... isyh...
Hmm... kena jawab ke tak? I have my own ethic in this matter. To me, people's commenting on my wall or statuses can be analogically compared to people knocking on my door or visiting me at home or saying hi to me. And to me, it is just appropriate to reply back as a form of an acknowledgment that I actually have read their comments and yes, I agree to the comment or no, I have differing opinions. Or sometimes I simply just put a smile as a reply or LOL for comments that are hilariously funny and I can't think of any funnier comments to reply. But then again, I do leave some comments go unanswered but that is very scarce. Selalunya, selagi boleh jawab, akan dijawab.
To put the above as an FB ethic might be too much. But there are a few ethics regarding FB available. And of course, the ethics of chatting/instant messaging or other netiquette should also be applied in FB, such as:
1. DON'T USE CAPS ALL THE TIME. IT MAKES YOU SOUND ANGRY AND SEEMS YOU ARE SHOUTING!!!
2. Proper use of punctuation, should help in reading. the message; and not causing confusion? 3. Use the emoticons wisely for appropriate conditions and situations. But these emoticons are really cute if you see the actual image, eg
:"> X( =)) :D And if yahoo's emoticons are cute, gmail emoticons are rather cute too.
Oopss... ok, I am totally over with these emoticons...
4. Avoid sarcastic/nasty remarks. Even though you meant it as a joke, people might interpret it differently. Double oopss for me... I may have been guilty for this sometimes.
Ok, back to the question: should we reply to every comments? I still feel we should. But others may beg to differ. For them, maybe some comments doesn't require an answer or maybe they have this in mind 'FB aku, suka hati aku la nak jawab ke tak'. And I don't blame them. It's not written anywhere that you are required to reply to every comments you received. Letih jugak beb.. especially if you have hundreds of comments. Mine tak la, that's why I can still manage to answer all . But I'm putting this as my ethic of FB.
So I told my husband my opinion. And he said:
'Tolong la jawabkan'.
Ciss.... menyesal tanya...