We’re heading into an uncertain time in terms of social interaction. This uncertainty is evolving by the day with every new Internet tool introduced.

Last week was Twitter, this week it’s Vine. Every time something new comes into vogue, like an advanced Facebook feature or a fresh type of microblogging, we all have to figure out what the rules are for the use of this tool.

And let’s face it — we’re pretty much on our own. There’s no Emily Post, there’s no precedent for any of these new means of communication. We have to make it up as we go along.

I saw the trailer for a new movie called “Disconnect” this weekend, starring an out-of-character, serious Jason Bateman, Alexander Skarsgaard and Hope Davis. It opened last week and portrays how technology is dooming us to sustain off of LCD screens instead of real, honest, human interaction.

This definitely appears to paint a very dark portrait of where we’re headed with all of our phones, laptops and tablets. It posits that these devises lead to a lot of blackmail, murder, stalking and general creepiness.

Hopefully, we never quite get to that point as a society.

Yet there are certain aspects of human interaction that have undoubtedly changed forever because of our myriad technological advances. For example, my mother is about a month away from communicating with me exclusively through emoticons. She especially likes the blue swirl that looks like the Time Warner Cable logo.

But on a more serious note, we have all of these new means of interaction for which we’re making up the rules of etiquette as we go. And we’re finding there’s no right answer.

Before the Internet and social media, we had universal social contracts like, “Put your napkin in your lap” and “Don’t call someone’s house after 9:30 p.m.” Now, we have new rules that are being created and changed almost daily.

For instance, several years ago, I was convinced that once you got a girl’s number, you had to adhere to the strict “10 minutes” rule when it came to replying to texts. When I liked some nice young lady, I would count those minutes before coming up with a witty and charming reply to “sup?”

Then I decided this is a ridiculous rule and who cares how long it takes to answer a text? Nowadays, I’ve adopted this philosophy: When I get a text, I just answer it as soon I can. I’ve stopped pretending I’m much more busy than I am, far too busy to answer a lowly text from a mere mortal.

Other rules popping up out of the ether: Liking a Facebook comment or favoriting a tweet is a great way to make a social media exchange grind to a halt if you want it to end. Adding “haha” as a prefix or suffix to any message makes it seem less creepy. If you’re making a joke that’s a little edgy or dry, a simple “haha” makes it clear you’re kidding, and you don’t have to spend 20 minutes apologizing for an offense.

So much of what we do online is determined by the masses, making it more and more difficult to create straightforward, universal guidelines for interacting with one another.

Despite the fact that we’re in a gray area right now, hopefully we won’t go the route portrayed in “Disconnect” — which looks like it has a lot of crying and murder. Regardless, we should be careful of how we use these new cyber-advances, and make sure we don’t all become zombie-Matrix blobs.

Kevin Slack is a senior television, radio and film major. His column appears weekly. He can be reached at khslack@syr.edu and followed on Twitter at @kevinhslack.

Published on April 23, 2013 at 1:00 am