Online Ambiguity

Sometimes it's difficult to interpret words we read on a screen. This can even happen when words are spoken, but is even more prevalent when read I find it.

From experiences I've had and ones I've heard about, mood seems to dictate interpretation. While feelings may have been shared in an e-mail or an instant message, it can be like reading text from a character in a book. While the words may provoke emotion, where the feelings reside are within ourselves.

There is no voice with the words that can be heard. If one is crying, we cannot hear and feel that. While one may type something like ::crying:: and that may be somewhat saddening to read, it does not carry with it the same empathetic impact as actually hearing or seeing a person cry. This is why I find the concept of cybersex to be so silly. How can someone actually get aroused through that? If someone messaged me with some dirty lingo, attempting to hit on me in cyberspace, I'm sure I'd bust out laughing.

Depending upon if a person is sad, angry, confused, content, shy, hyper, or whatever mood they're in at that moment, they may interpret what I write differently. This has gotten me into trouble at times, especially through e-mails. Because, as opposed to face-to-face or telephone conversations, where people can ask questions on the spot to hopefully clear away any misunderstanding, this can't be done via e-mail. Two people may write one another thinking about completely different things and may be on completely different wavelengths when writing their e-mail and reading the other's. A male may ask the female to hang out sometime, with the intention being to just hang out. The female then may take this as a date and happily accept. They then may write back and forth with completely different visions of their date/hang out session. This will cause problems when that dat arrives, where either one party will be content and the other disappointed, or they will need to make up for the previous week's misunderstandings, ask questions, understand one another's intentions and the situation at hand, and hopefully reach a healthy compromise where both parties can enjoy their time together. It would've been much easier to have conversed over the telephone, where any misunderstandings could've been discussed right then and there, as opposed to allowing things to build for an entire week, where the anticipation and hopes (especially of the female) came to a crashing halt.

The online world is a nice form of communication, especially for those may live rather far away from yourself. But, when it comes to the locals, it's important to be careful with one's wording and to make sure that there aren't any misunderstandings. Because of that, it may be better just to stick with the phone for the locals.