Yeah, believe it or not, text is about the worst form of communication in that there is no context provided beyond other text and often that's not nearly enough.
A recent study (and sorry, major migraine, can't be arsed to look it up) showed that 53% of all communication is non-verbal. I presume that means in person, but yeah.
I think that's why people who don't speak Spanish can watch those telenovelas and still follow along... and they are kinda addicting...
Absolutely. I imagine that part of me actually appreciates the way that text can be so easily played with to create double meanings, subtle (or not) puns, inside jokes etc. Another way to put it, perhaps how a sociopathic person might put it if they were being honest (big IF...) is that text is just so easy to manipulate. It's own inherent limitations make it much easier to conceal or misrepresent true intentions or feelings.
But those same attributes that make it easy to manipulate are also the same ones that make texting fun for young people.
And it's just a whole lot easier than the real thing.
There is a lot lost between a face to face conversation and a telephone call and an even larger gap between a phone call and a text message.
Even as a guy who grew up without internet at home and one who waited years and years after my peers did before owning a smartphone, even I feel like a standard face to face conversation can be an extremely intense experience, even if it's just a typical, trivial talk. It's not about the content so much as it is a kind of sensory overload... or something like it.. while I consciously carry on the conversation, so much other data is being both simultaneously processed and projected. If I can feel that way about having basic, 1 on 1 conversations in person, I can only imagine how it might be for today's youths. No wonder they gaze at their shoelaces and avoid eye contact! Real conversation is intense when you're not used to talking or listening to someone while your eyes, posture, breathing, tone of voice etc are having their own much deeper exchange.
It's been said that the "eyes are the window to the soul". It's not that I'm uncomfortable with someone seeing me in my eyes... it's that seeing THEM is uncomfortable for me. Not always, obviously, not too often, but it's there. When people use someone's bad eye contact as a reason to doubt or suspect them, a part of me always feels sympathy for that person because I can sort of relate.
I'm always aware that not everyone will recognize when I'm being less than 100% serious on this board, yet I would probably be surprised at just how many simply read what I write and take it at "face value".
