Monday, March 01, 2004

Derek and Charmaine both discussed the lack of emotion conveyed in online discourse. I think it is interesting how we adapt to a lack of emotional discourse. For instance, ALL CAPS MEANS WE ARE PISSED OFF. With instant messenger and other messenging services, we have the smiley emoticons that are supposed to help convey our feelings. But, even with these items, we cannot fully understand the emotional context in which we are conversing online. There are many a times when I was on instant messenger and someone took something I said the wrong way or vice versa because text is just that--text. In books, it is different because you can frame the discourse with what is surrounding it. It would look quite silly if you framed your instant message. As Charmaine said, instant messaging is great for fast talking and fun, but if you need to have a serious conversation, face to face is always the best.

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