In what ways do you communicate online?
Let me reword the question: in what ways do I communicate online? In particular, how do I talk on a media that is tone-deaf, can be used by bad actors for uncivilized behaviour, that can take what I post online and MANIPULATE IT… TWIST IT UP… and use it as evidence against me in the court of public opinion?
I want to answer the obvious question: THE WHAT = I use social media, email to friends and business associates, and I also use instant-messaging in some unexpected ways! Current 2026 platforms:
| Electronic Platform | My opinion of it! |
| Google Gmail | I have 2 identities. And I pay for 1 of the accounts to get extra storage space. It’s part of my 3-2-1 backup protocol. paulraymondneem and scubaman2009 |
| Signal | I have a pen-name, and this is a truly encrypted program that I financially support! Monthly donation. |
| Telegram | I’m not quite there yet with this platform. It’s a super secret squirrel program. |
| Facebook. Instagram?! | Oh christ. I’m not paying for it, so I assume Meta is data-mining the ever loving shit out of my personal data. Still, it’s the main gossip platform for the North Bruce Peninsula, Ontario, Canada. Number 1 rule: “don’t feed the troll”. Rule number 2: don’t be “well actually…man”. |
| Threads | My brother-in-law, AES, suggested this platform. Unfortunately, I haven’t quite figured it out yet. |
| Blog-Vlog using WordPress | Mediocre platform, best of a the lot. Is it a worthwhile interface between me and my domain host? |
| Microsoft Outlook | Outlook? Nahhhh. …@hotmail.ca forever! And I was able to switch it from dot com to dot ca a few years back. I love my hawtmale suffix, yeah (((insert hot-and-sweaty ickiness)))). AES, thank you for having me as part of your Microsoft 365 Family. I get some added email protection and that 1TB of storage is appreciated as part of my 3-2-1 backup protocol. |
| iCloud | I appreciate the disposable email option as a way to foil dataminers. I pay extra for iCloudPLUS, with the extra space & security features. |
| Duck.com | I cautiously use their AI summary feature (buyer beware). And I appreciate their …@duck.com email forwarding feature! |
| YouTube comments section | …with my real name in that viper nest. @paulneem3288 |
| Head-fi.org newsgroups | …using a pen-name [pseudonym] that’s easy to suss out my true identity. There’s all kinds of weird woo in the channels. Proceed with caution. Scuba Man. |
| Discord | I use a pseudonym. This is a gamer-based community and the 1 Hi-Fi DiY channel intrigues me! |
| Slack | This is a weird one. I use it to keep in touch with 2 different “slacks”: MyNoise patrons and a casual motley crew of audiophiles subset from headfi.org |
| Apple IM | Yeah, it’s a closed and gated garden. I support Apple’s ToS and privacy policy. I’ve been known to slip IM to TS in the same room, in social settings, as a form of diplomacy!! |
| Google Maps, Google Business Tools | I post reviews as a customer. AND I MONITOR HOW THOSE REVIEWS PAN OUT OVER TIME. |
| MintOS Discussion Group | I use a pseudonym on this OS discussion group. This is a fantastic OS and the discussions on the platform allow me IT proficency. |
how do i communicate online?
This is a more important question for me. HOW DO I COMMUNICATE? The above platforms will come and go, however, online communications has some unique characteristics that I address!
- I assume whatever I post online can be printed up and published anywhere. If I act like a foul-mouthed bigot, it’s going to be posted.
- My opinions WILL offend someone… somewhere… out in the aether.
- I had a Special Education Resource Teacher (SERT) colleague at my old job tell me something profound: when communicating with teenagers or people under stress, let everyone “speak their truth”.
- I, as Mister Neem, might be shocked or offended by the person’s point-of-view, but I need to try to give them a safe venue to voice it.
- Person A = speak your truth. Person B = speak your truth. Person C = … Person D = …. No person B, you can’t interrupt person D = that’s unfair. THE REAL TRUTH is some nebulous X factor floating around.
- However… at day’s end… there are some shared rules all must follow in a civil society.
- What are my rules for a civil society? That’s easy. THEY ARE RIGHT HERE IN THE CANADIAN LAW BOOKS. The Charter Of Rights And Freedoms. Link. Yes, I have a hard-copy that I’m going to reframe and post in my workshop 🙂 ….and if someone keeps violating the charter? Well, *ignore*, *report*, and *block user* are tools I have available to me. And oh fuck, do I use them!
https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/rfc-dlc/ccrf-ccdl/
- I manage my online persona. I want to be a decent human being. A civil Canadian citizen. My (online) deeds speak. If I honestly support a multicultural country, do my words reflect it?
- Am I willing to acknowledge poor choices of words. Am I willing to apologize for online statements. Am I willing to be held accountable for what I post online?
- THIS IS AN IMPORTANT ONE FOR ME: I post business reviews on Google Maps.
- I use my real name. No pseudonyms.
- Do I keep tabs on my reviews? I’m at about 90 different reviews online – I scroll through them periodically.
- If the business owner replies to my review, am I willing to re-assess my review?
- Integrity of my reviews. I won’t piss on a business, and trot away. If the business responds in good faith, I reply in kind. Ask Evolve Builders Group… the people who built our rock farm about that (link). The founder, Ben Polley, had the courage to keep my negative review on the public record. We worked it out and it got us a house in the end!
- If possible, I keep certain conversations OFF THE PUBLIC RECORD. Private messaging (PM) is needed to show respect to other people. I try (oh fuck do I try) to avoid causing people to lose face… to be shamed. Shame breeds resentment, eh.
- Beware of the echo chamber effect.
- This is a tough one. I surround myself with like-minded individuals and online-entities.
- Am I ignoring other perspectives?
- Do I acknowledge my biases on topic x, y, and z…?
- Typed posts are MISSING NON-VERBAL CUES.
- Holy shit, this is a big one for me. Emails and posts are tone-deaf.
- I watched an interview of a hostage negotiator. They use emoticons in some situations. This episode is worth a watch!!
- Global Reach: https://www.reach.global/
- I use different fonts, bold text, highlighting, ALL CAPITAL LETTERS. If it’s not too obnoxious, coloured type. MY LESSON = KNOW my AUDIENCE.
- My online persona will outlive me. When I croak, what digital legacy will remain? Will it make the reader smile, cringe, and/or roll their eyes…. or all at once?!
- If I know 1 of the online platforms is about to die, I download my personal data or use whatever purge-tools that are available.
In closing: I try to walk the walk, and talk the talk (I went over this expression with TS as she merrily knits dog-knows-what… “how about walking the talk, or wok the caulk…?!… [she just shook her head sadly and lovingly at me… ahhhhh well] TS loves me). You’ll notice that our blog now contains more video of me talking to the void. Perhaps that will improve my ability to communicate online?
By The Way: when I was a sea cadet, we WERE taught how to use semaphore. Flags, flags, flags!
BCB&B, neemtree, bdb, and blog 
