Every summer I get the opportunity to teach my reference class online, and every summer I end up horrified by the things students say to me in their emails. Yesterday afternoon I received a lovely email from a student complaining about an assignment that they were handing in, and I'm still boiling mad about it.

I'm not mad that the student considered the assignment to be an exercise in busy work. I'm not mad that the student thought that it was time consuming. Heck, I'm not even mad that the student told me that it was the least valuable assignment they had completed in the entire program. Wow. The entire program? That's an endorsement I can put on my next syllabus.

What has me mad (and I believe I have blogged about this before) is that this is stuff that I know the student would never in a million years have the balls to say to my face or even over the phone. While I love the convenience of online communication, I absolutely hate the fact that people do not feel in any way accountable for what they say online. People can say what they want, when they want, to who they want without ever having to worry about what happens after their message is sent. Heck, they don't even have to read the response to their thoughts if they don't want to. That's what the handy delete button is for.

I'm someone who (unless communicating with friends) tries to remain circumspect in everything I say in email. Why? Because you never know when something is going to come back and bite you on the butt. I don't ever want to be in that position, so I do my damnedest to make sure that doesn't happen. To me communication is communication, regardless of whether it's online, on the phone, or face-to-face. And if you aren't brave enough to say it to my face, then don't say it at all. Okay?

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