At the beginning of the semester, an anonymous KAIST student wrote an anger-fueled post filled with foul language against a religious club of KAIST on the school's online forum ARA. The student complained about the club's loud praising activities that could be heard in other club rooms nearby. This started a long and controversial debate not only on the actual problem at hand, but also on whether students should adhere to basic manners even when online. The KAIST Herald further observes this issue.

Pro: A Much Deeper Issue at Hand
By Yoo Hee Kang

It would be a cliché to start off with an emphasis on individual rights or freedom of speech regarding the supercilious and oftentimes downright nasty attitudes of some anonymous users on ARA. Indeed, addressing and demanding rights and holding them up as if that would justify our preferred behavior is selfish nonsense. Rights have been demolished long ago and at some point during the destruction, people, though most likely not this generation, have started to manipulate and define rights to their own benefits and self-interests. As is the case, rights may be merely what people want.

Programmed deep within the back of our minds, or taught naturally, we keep a list of rights that we believe we ought to have, and when something does not fall along the lines of what we have in store, there seems to be an immediate kick back response. In the case of ARA, most people, whether or not they are aware of this fact, want the right to a well preserved, clean online community. It is for this reason we sit back in front of the computer and turn into the court of justice, demanding access to calm and respectful opinions of others. Yet, is this a right we should claim or are we automatically acting over-repulsive to any input that may cause a threat to the good old conventional list at hand? Are we not simply living according to the rules, playing puppets of the invisible hand that created such rights for us to use? Without questioning, but accepting things as they are, our generation thinks they find the resources provided for us quite handy. Ironically though, we are still in desperate thirst for even more rights. I am afraid, however, that the thirst will never be quenched unless we take the time to think about what it is that we truly value.

As much as we have been clinging to rights, the issue of being morally good comes into question in a similar vein; how good is good? Is the use of vulgar words on a school community website like ARA not good? How do we equate what is good with the satisfactions of our wants and preferences? Haven’t we been accepting the general opinion of the majority regarding this matter like we have been doing, so sheepishly, with rights? Going along with the crowd ensures safety and uniformity and maintains a society devoid of any unwanted disturbance that might bring uncomfortable attention. In return, however, we have become over protective, trying not to make ourselves conspicuous, especially in the offline world for the fear of being penalized or being called different. Resulting from this ill of society, the trend is that indirect expressions of opinions and thoughts have become a commonality, and such repressed feelings could possibly be the cause of violence in the world today. In this sense, overthrowing the custom of passively taking part in the majority ruled thoughts, and bringing out violent and unpolished thoughts, mingled with some of your true feelings, could be the start of a small revolution.

We definitely need a revolution, but the important matter of discussions will override the quiet truthful voice. Just as well, those who wish to discuss serious issues are often denied or thought of as a burden. We are not usually excited by calm and shyly spoken words, but by rather harsh words for whatever reasons that irritate us and we would recognize this difference right away. In truth, without such a trigger, the issues may not get any attention in the first place. Using ARA to bring out what we have within may seem to cause disorder at first, but in this time of an oblivious social isolation, it is perhaps a reasonable cure for the previously mentioned problems. By expressing the varieties of human emotions and being able to throw in whatever is on one’s mind without any polish, this kind of openness gives us a chance to discuss even the most trivial issues at heart without the need to worry about its formality or appropriateness. Reputation and other trivial things that we consider as values may not be so valuable after all. For one thing, we are not going backwards; we are discussing a much deeper issue that needs our close attention.

Con: Why Use Abusive Language Online?
By Ah Hyun Kim

There have been many issues on Ara, the KAIST online community, about the recent post that was full of swear words and rude, condescending tones. It made lots of readers frown not only at the content itself but, more so at the abusive language usages. It later on led to a long and exhausting argument including sarcastic jokes and mud slinging completely unrelated to the original content. It is important to keep our etiquettes when posting opinions online, and this does not change even if we can stay anonymous. Therefore, why use foul language online when we know that it will just cause more disturbances?

First, using abusive, provocative expressions is not the only way to emphasize and properly state one’s opinion. There are many other polite expressions that better explain one’s point of view clearly. The online community can be in a much more courteous state just by paying a bit more attention to the phrasing of sentences. Being upset or agitated is not the proper mood to express one’s thoughts thoroughly. It is a certain fact that more organized arguments are formed when one is in a calm and dispassionate mood.

Furthermore, abusive language easily muddies the issue. When the online board is already filled with rude and abusive language, people feel less guilty about using abusive language. This leads to more mud-slinging and attacks against one another, which easily ruins the original purpose of the online forum. As a result, the online users focus more on the provocative words rather than the main issues. It can be a big disturbance in solving problems or even communicating online. This is what happened in ARA. Once provocative feedbacks started to appear, we could see that the following new comments focus more on the personal insults rather than the main issue. Thus, it is important to use nice wordings to prevent these kinds of confusions.

Moreover, we need to acknowledge the fact that other people outside of KAIST can also have access to the forum. Even though ARA is an online community for KAIST students, and despite the fact that there is a set system to allow only KAIST students, it is hard to assure that viewers are KAIST students only. It is not a pretty sight to show outsiders when our posts contain dirty language and condescending tones. It is better to use our online forum with as much consideration for outsiders as for our other KAIST members.

It is important to form an online environment that does not make other users feel uncomfortable. This is called keeping one’s etiquette. Though it is not a set of rules, people generally acknowledge that we need to keep our manners in human relationships. This applies in the same way for online environments too. It is not right to ignore basic etiquettes just because the user cannot be identified online. It is a shame even having to emphasize these manners, since this has to do with students’ morals. As we are all adults who are receiving an advanced university education, we should start to act like responsible adults. The users of ARA should at least keep basic manners and refrain from using provocative language.