Now that I have your attention: I think for the most part my on-line communication style is consistent with my face-to-face speech, my letter-writing, and my phone conversations (except while talking on the phone, I may be paying Scrabble at the same time, which might make me lose my train of thought). At this point in my life, I have developed a fairly consistent view of myself and my expression; and thus, I do not feel the need to juggle vernacular in my head to accommodate various venues. I’m me, and I talk like me, and I write like me.
Of course, there are differing levels of formality. On Facebook, I might use !!!!!!!!!!!!!!! to underscore emotion, or a J or a :-D or a :-P. But I would not use those things in formal writing, unless of course I was writing a dissertation on the effective use on Facebook of multiple punctuation marks and emoticons to communicate and underscore emotion. J Oops, sorry!
When taking an on-line class, like this one, I will sometimes use visuals in discussions, but not at first. It depends on how the professor has tailored the class whether there is liberty there or not. I had a history professor once with whom I would never have risked anything but spitting back to him what he gave us in the way he gave it because he had no sense of humor. I did what I needed to get the grade. That wasn’t hypocritical or schizophrenic; it was adaptation and survival of the fittest! Also, very boring.
Chat is a big frustration. It goes so fast, and I need to punctuate, check my grammar, and spell correctly. No u r’s or LOL’s. So I’m too slow. Once I went on a chat forum for a homemaking diva turned criminal person—naming no names—and by the time I had contributed my thoughtful response, say on tofu-turkey (and self-edited), the frenzied participants were on to the next banal discussion item, say how to eat organically in the local jail cell. The entries sailed up the page as if my computer had taken to scrolling on its own. I surrendered my membership! Too much pressure!
I feel like I’m not as stressed about it as I used to be. I guess the more I chat with family on Skype or FB, or the more I IM my friends, the more I get used to it. I find a quiet liberty to let that sentence sail off into cyberspace without a capital, the required semicolon, or proper end punctuation. I can let that “becasue” go and breathe a sigh, knowing that that recurring typo will rear its ugly head again at some other time, but it does not diminish me as a person . . . . and besides, I can always send a correction.
What I hope my style says about me is that I am intelligent, witty, thoughtful, and not as insecure as I feel at times. I am a somewhat shy person, but the verbal me with ideas to share is always hammering at the door to get out, and the creative me is willing to take the risk. And the me that does come out, hopefully, is dressed in the same clothes.
I love your story about the forum. I've been on forums before where I couldn't keep up, and I told myself to just forget it.
ReplyDeleteChat drives me insane, also. I think we are very similar in that respect. Half of what I send is corrections, especially since my shift key doesn't always work. Eventually, though, i do mellow out and start letting mistakes go. That's when my friends actually call me to make sure I didn't get hacked. Oops.
I think that your writing style is very witty, and intelligent. Your blog is one of my favorites to read because it always makes me laugh. I would never guess that you were shy if you did not state that you were. I would guess that you were a very friendly, energetic, outgoing person.
I still have a hard time controlling myself and my use of emoticons (smilies). I know that I need to be careful with whom I use them, but so often I find myself backspacing away an "lol" or :). It's really terrible that I've let my computer change my writing patterns that much.
You should let the verbal Lilly out more often, she would be the life of the party!
Actually, I'm a mixed bag. When I'm on stage, I am fine, which is often terror for some. But if I am in a place where I don't know a lot of people or people don't already know me, or I am unsure of the expectations, I am more withdrawn. But given an audience, small or large, I blossom. It doesn't mean I shed all my insecurities, but I have a certain comfort level. You sing, so maybe it makes sense to you? :)
ReplyDeleteI always enjoy reading your blogs because they are definitely witty, intelligent, and thoughtful! You appear to be a person that can find the humor in whatever life may throw at you. I too find it easier to express myself in the written word than the spoken word.
ReplyDeleteThis class has been my first experience with blogging. It was difficult at first but I find the more I write, the easier it gets. Keeping up with the latest in communication can be challenging! My kids like to text message so I have had to learn how to communicate with them that way. My daughter, in particular, does not like to talk on the phone so if I want to talk to her I need to send her a text or instant message. Learning the slang IM has been a challenge as well. I have a few of the acronyms down but I have a long way to go.
We are using instant messaging more and more in the workplace which I have mixed feelings about. It is usually a shorter, easier way to ask someone a quick question but then you have those times when multiple people are asking you those quick questions at the same time and you are trying to finish a project to meet a deadline. I will often change my status to offline or in a meeting so I can finish the task at hand.
Keep up the great, entertaining work on your blogs!