I tend to look at... speaking on social media/texting as a whole 'nother language altogether. Because it really is. In texting, we don't have body-language, or traditional facial expressions, but we have other tools to help us convey our intentions.
List of things that change the tone of your message:
-Word choice!
"That's fantastic!" vs "That's nice!" or "Canadians tend to eat a lot!" vs "Canadians love food!" (one may give the impression that you're saying it in a negative light) When I first got introduced to the internet, I exaggerated happiness/positive emotions to an extreme, because I didn't want people to think I was being cold, mean, etc. And it really can help to just exaggerate a little on your positive emotions/thoughts, so that people for sure get what you mean.
-Punctuation!(!!!)
"Nice." vs "Nice!" This doesn't mean you should go around throwing exclamation marks at everyone, but it's good to be aware of how your punctuation may effect the portrayal of your message. ;P Sometimes, if I'm chatting with someone in a chat room or something, I won't use periods if my message sounds a little too formal already (I only do that for short messages like "The water
is kind of blue" That's a bad example of where you would need one but oh well). Periods just have a way of making things seem more serious. Whereas exclamation marks, make you sound a bit more exasperated! Excited!!! SUPER EXCITED!!! AND FANGIRLING!!!!!!!1!1@!!!!(!!!)
So yeah, it's good to pay attention to how you punctuate things. ^_^
-Smilies!
Yay, we can imitate facial expressions! XP "Hello." vs "Hello.
" These are also SUPER helpful when you are a sarcastic person (sometimes the people that are the MOST sarcastic don't realize I'm being sarcastic, which makes me wonder just how well I'm executing it... but in any case, it's safe to assume sarcasm needs an extra hand on the internet). Nooo, REALLY??? *sarcasm warning* ;P
Yes, you can outright WARN them after you say the sarcastic thing, or you can turn into a wink-monster.
Smilies can also help with awkward conversations. Don't know how to reply to a wink or a kissy face or someone's rant about their bad day? Bomb those suckers with smilies (I've been calling them smilies because I don't know how to spell the technical term, emoticon-- THERE), and by smilies that can be anything that looks remotely like a face (Examples: B) 8) ;-; :/ O.O O>O o-o 8D ). I mean, if you use them tactfully they can really help. c:
I personally also try to match how the other person texts. So if they use less emoticons, I'll probably use less emoticons. If they use more "text speak" I might use more of that as well. It really depends on the situation and the person. People tend to be more comfortable if you communicate how they're used to communicating. So when in doubt, maybe try matching the tone of the message on facebook, or tumbler, or whatever! Sometimes it really helps. There's also things to take into account such as age, sex, location. It's not cool to generalize, but you can generalize in your head a bit, to give you an idea of how people may react to things. For instance, if you're talking to a fifteen year old boy, it's likely that he'll get your sarcasm, if you make sure it's clear you're being sarcastic. However on a sixty year old, your sarcasm may be lost altogether. And the neat thing about FB is you can "stalk" people (whom you KNOW, my goodness XP) and figure out just how they communicate- all you have to do is observe there previous wall posts/comments.
Anyway, that's how I've learned to get around the screen. And I actually communicate far better online then I do offline... cell towers just don't carry it the same! ;P
