Whether it is a thank
you card, a newspaper article, dumping a boyfriend through text, or a note-
"Will you go out with me? -Circle Yes or No", written text will
never do justice to the power of being present in the moment and hearing or saying
it for oneself. It is nearly impossible to identify the correct emotion
behind the text- which can cause all kinds of confusion. We are emotional
beings with creative minds; we rely on how we feel in the moment and what we
have experienced in the past to interpret writing or text before us. I
agree with Kekoa Riggin in the fact that texting is one of the
greatest communication barriers we have today. I would, however,
like to focus more on the emotional side.
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| Boys will be Girls |
In the YouTube clip
"Boys Will Be Girls" there is a part where the boy texts his
girlfriend to see if she'd closed the garage door, to which she responds
simply, "yes". The boy explodes and eventually dumps her because
he reads into the text as if she could care less about him and is annoyed by
him. I can’t even tell you how many times either I or another has been
offended by a text, or super hesitant to respond because of falsely analyzing
the emotion behind the text. I responded to a friend through text who had
just gone through a break up by trying to comfort him and liven his spirits.
He took it as sarcasm, texted a few hurtful words to me, and never spoke
to me again… all because of a stinking miscommunication of emotion through
texting!
I've also found myself freak out when I have just told someone about an exciting event, only to have the response "cool". When really they felt more COOOLL!!!!!! It can also work to the opposite effect, texting "COOOLLL!!!" when really I could care less. Texting is often misleading, difficult to interpret, and untrue to our emotions. Although I am grateful for the easiness of texting, there is something to be said about face to face communication, or at least a phone call; it can save relationships!
