Tone and internet writing

[Arch0wl]

What I'm doing here is giving you my experience and ask you to respond by comparing your own experiences and adding your own insights.

When I was an angsty teen I often thought that everyone on the internet was extremely hostile to me. Now that I'm a lot older and have taken classes that require you to interpret text, the way people respond to text online has fascinated me.

I've realized, for example, that part of the reason I felt so compelled to argue with people all the time is because I thought they were trying to argue with me, and the reason I saw people as so hostile was because I was hostile at that time. I've met timid people in-person who online struck me as enormous assholes. Contrarily, I've met people who were super-extroverted but seemed boring online.

Part of this is in the way I viewed grammar and punctuation. When I was in middle school, I imagined a very stuck-up voice in my head when I read posts typed with impeccable grammar and colorful diction. It could be that you're reading this posts with that very same voice. Right now, though, this is just how I sound--I'm typing as I would talk if I had very attentive listeners who allowed me to go uninterrupted.

As an example, sometimes if I end a sentence without punctuation it sounds inherently more casual, for example:

"Yeah"

Whereas if I use a period, it might sharper and more forceful:

"Yeah."

Capitalization would also make a difference. If a post is properly capitalized, I'll project; I tend to read it with my chest voice or what has been called my "important person voice."

However, if it's in lowercase it sounds weak; it'll be all from the head voice. Lowercase, informal posts seem inherently more mellow to me, and that informality coupled with an aggressive message always gives me the impression of an annoying and sneering passive-aggressive attitude that drives me up the wall. I always imagine a very feminine hipster-type person that never engages eye contact when I read this style of writing.

example: "yeah i doubt anyone thinks that go away."

I could write a lot more about this, but that's the gist.

The point in giving you these interpretations is because obviously interpretations are not always accurate, and could be inaccurate a lot of the time. This would mean that there could be (and probably are) a bunch of people at any given time totally missing the attitude another person has toward them because all they have to go on is their own assumption of what the other person is like.

Questions to consider:

What do you think about this? Have you ever thought about how your tone could be read? Has this caused problems for you before? Do you think this is the reason for a lot of unnecessary arguments? How do you normally interpret tone?