Reading a person's text, or email, or IM is very different from hearing their voice say the words. The first difference is that they tend to use different words in text form, because it is either easier to type it that way, or they have had time to look over what they are saying, and they edited it to make it sound better, and more like what they actually meant. I love the latter reason, because it means the person is really saying what they mean to say, not just talking as a quick response.
But that also puts some pressure on what you type, because once you send it, it can never be taken back, and there is evidence of its existence. When you say something really dumb online, you can be punished more for it, because you cannot just quickly change the subject, or re-iterate as easily as you can in verbal communication.
Another great reason text is different from talking is that you can choose to read the text any way you want. While the person might have meant the connotation to be one way, or not meant for something to sound a certain way, they really have no control over it. I can choose to make an incoherent text coherent by adding what I want to see, while its very hard to not hear a drunken slurr in face to face talking.
No comments:
Post a Comment