Miss understood
Printed words may no longer be just black on white, but the colours haven’t changed a thing. It’s still that easy for one to misinterpret another’s words in writing. Especially if you do not know someone well enough, you can hardly venture a guess to the tone behind a comment. I find that rather unnerving. Words on paper will never have the same effect as that of spoken words. Sarcasm can go completely unnoticed by an unsuspecting victim, which could be a good, bad, ugly, frustrating or disappointing thing to the sarcastic. In this regard, emoticons are a good thing because they sort of help express the emotion surrounding a comment. I know that many a ;) has saved me from being misunderstood.
posted by LovingAndLosing @ 10:15 pm
12 comments
12 Comments:
While that's true, I think many people use emoticons just to 'soften' the tone of what they are saying, even though they may feel otherwise.
Do you know how annoying it is when u're chatting with someone, and every sentence from them ends with a ;) or a :P? U have no idea when they're kidding and when they've been offended. Coz they 'save' themselves with the emoticons.
I personally dislike all emoticons apart from the smiley.
I guess the safest bet to make sure written sarcasm is understood would be to make it as "unreal" or "impossible" as possible.
To quote two examples from my previous post..
"until he had made sure we would remember it long after we were dead." could hardly be misunderstood by anyone..
But people may miss the sarcasm in..
"I remember spending a month of study holidays most usefully; downloading 227 songs, spending over a 150 hours online to do so."
Btw, good point Sahil. I must remember to cut down on my smileys so that they don't lose their impact.. :-).
Sahil: I am quite an emoticony person. But that's when I'm in a good mood. Then I'm using lots of :), :D, ;) and :p. But when I'm upset or angry, I hardly use them because then you don't have the time nor patience for silly emoticons. For example, if you're really really upset, you won't be busy typing :( ! Actually what irritates me more than emoticons is the word 'lol'. But I do see your point. There's always two sides to everything, isn't there!
Nirmal: I would have never in the world guessed you were being sarcastic about the downloading songs comment.
Words, rearrange them and u get a sword.. to guard, fight or to slay is for you to decide..damage done thru the choice of rong words conveyed thru ur voice is often much worse than the other alternative! So be careful. Atleast, there is no "damn, tht wasnt me, it was Mr. X, sorry" as a safety net..
Random Access
The search has just begun !!!
Beautifully put, RA :D
Quite true...LOL is the single most irritating "almost word" in English. People dont know what to say and they go lol. Also irritating, in light of RA's Anagram analysis, is the way people use shortened words like gr8 and 4ever. Reminds me of algebra!
well coming to chatting.. it always a different interpretation.. unless u the person to whom u are chatting very well.. when u speak to someone.. the expression on their face tell the truth.. whether they mean it or not... but chatting never conveys the depth.. the use of emotiocns while chatting only get u more confused.. esp when u have a person of the opposite sex on the other side.. and even more when u dont know them that well... in all use of emoticons can also make the reader misunderstand...
You think you've got hassles?
People don't get when I'm being sarcastic in person.
The talk about the songs I downloaded was a fact. I meant the "most usefully" part.. Don't tell me you missed that..
Vikas: LOL! Ugh!!!! I totally know what you mean.
Vishy: Well if a person is going to be fake to you online, what are the chances that the person won't be fake in person too?
Yohan: Uhm, that might be a personal thing! :p
Nirmal: Don't tell me you missed the sarcasm...
That was a good one!! I REALLY missed it completely..
Hehe. I'll overlook it this time ;)
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