Americans are better at web-language
I’ve been thinking about a post about why British people are really, fundamentally, shit at social networking and blogging, and then I find this: a a post at the US Transportation Security Administration about how they’re handling comments. In the week that Civil Serf apparently got shut down, it is profoundly depressing for British viewers, simply because there is no way in the world, no conceivable away that a British public agency would speak to its users like this. It’s like the language on the TSA blog has been beamed in from another planet where bureaucracies are run by human beings who are not literally afraid of communication. Take this, from a post about shoes:
It’s not all about Richard Reid when it comes to the screening of shoes. Post all of your thoughts about shoes in this blog post. To learn more about how the shoe fits in with the TSA, check out our web page on “why we screen shoes”. Then come back here and let’s talk.
Can you imagine a British government department or quango using direct language like that? Can you imagine talking to the BAA in language like that? Shall we all move to America?
I’m with you - and think our [the UK’s] crapness online is a fatal combination of British reserve (who me? express an opinion? and publish it?) plus no 1st amendment embedded in our culture (”Loose Lips Sink Ships” is the only related slogan I can recall).
There is also still a large number of Brits who would be horrified to be spoken to in the tone of the official you quote; a senior member of my family reported just the other day how appalled she was that a doctor had presumed to call her by her first name at their initial contact. Familiarity breeds contempt etc.
But on monitoring my teenage family members’ expressive online activities, possibly due to healthier global (US) influences, I believe the children are our future (thankfully).
Hang in there, it’s not that long before the Bebo generation are in charge - and hopefully even less time before civil servants realise that publishing once in a blog might save the work of all their drones answering scores of freedom of information related requests.
Comment by Louise — March 17, 2008 @ 5:58 pm