Electronic Communication

We can all think of examples that illustrate mis-spoken or misunderstood communication. You say things on impulse. You regret it. Wish you could repeat it in a different light.

Explain. Defend. Excuse.

If you are chatting in person, you can immediately "fix" it with a smile, a frown, maybe a little other kind of facial expression, or a touch, a gesture.

If you are chatting online, e-mailing, replying, FaceBooking, even blogging, you can be misunderstood. Psychologists tell us that communication is only 3% verbal -- the rest is non-verbal communication.

These adjunct communication signals include facial expression, body language, and how you position your body with relation to the conversant. Mannerisms such as strategic eyebrow-raising can dramatically change the meaning of a simple sentence, double entendre'. Likewise, toe-tapping and finger drumming convey different messages.

Eye contact ... or the lack of it -- that's a big one! Direct gaze, sidelong glances, stare-at-the-ceiling or focusing on an obscure spot somewhere behind the head of the listener speaks volumes for the one who is talking. Gestures, such as covering the mouth with a hand for either the speaker or the listener indicates lying (or exaggerating) or disbelief (or skepticism). Wide eyes, narrow eyes, twinkly eyes.... all add meaning to mere words.

Electronic communication does not showcase a dry sense of humor. Sarcasm is lost in what is understood as real information. Or derogatory remarks. Anger can be confusingly processed by the reader, or simply dismissed as an unidentified remark. "Tongue-in-cheek" certainly can muddy the flow of communication. So often, included in immediate cyberchat is the LOL, the ha, ha, both either capitalized to show some emotion, or followed by grammatical marks such as exclamation points or question marks or quotation marks. Hanging thoughts or suggestions are followed by ....... dot, dot, dot. Tee Hee, <>, sideways smiley or frowny faces are used as attempts to qualify a statement.

Do we edit our own keyboard correspondence? Not usually -- that "Enter" button is so quick to hit-- after all, we know what we mean! It's clear! We do try to edit after it is received and (often) wrongly ) perceived. It was simply a "self-explanatory" note.

Both the speaker and the listener(s) conduct a conversation from their own perspective, in the light of what they know or feel or assume at the moment. I'm not even going to get into texting, another form of sharing thoughts and information. People are connected to the world at a second's notice through personal cell phones -- all at the prompt of a beep, or more likely, a lyrical signal that tells a little bit about the owner.

Teensy keyboards in one little ever-present electronic hand-held pocket-sized device which includes cameras, the Internet, and Google, just to mention a few functional additions, facilitate instant communication.

Ain't technology grand!
You know what I mean.... right? LOL.