And of course with any electronic communication channels, we lose the ever-important non-verbal signals. Facial features, gestures, intonations (less so with phones, but still), etc… none of those come across, meaning it can be that much harder to determine what the original intent of the message was. Sarcasm? Irony? Cynicism? Wit? Who knows. All we see are the pixels on the screen.

Interesting post. If you’re curious, I found your site through JeffHester.net… I’ll be linking your site from mine if you don’t mind.

Interesting post which touches on a number of areas. It reminds of research I read about that was done back in the day on school and university students writing had been changed by the tools that they used. When they had a pen and pad or a typewriter the writing was more structured, but was not as creative as the work done by students using word processing software. Technology like email and IM, by their immediate nature encourage us to develop an immediate response (hence the speed and sloppiness as you call it). Also if you wrote long-winded prose you would probably end up with ‘Blackberry thumb’.

Bottom line is that we are both influencers and influenced by our environments. Keep on blogging /Ged

While I’m not sure that IM qualifies as a professional community, shorthand does reflect a culture of sorts. I suppose the problem Dana writes about could be a form of “dual consciousness” (apologies to Du Bois).

I feel it is like learning a new dialect, where your brain automatically maps out the language. And then eventually you start thinking in that dialect.

The main problem for me was that it has a much reduced vocabulary and grammar structure, so expressing complex ideas follows a torturous, circuitous path. And often word would fail me because I didnt have the vocab.

Eventually I adopted a philosophy of only interacting using ‘proper’ english, (which ruled out most IM and simple email) and I haven’t backtracked yet over the last 2 years.

I have taken to using IM over phone conversations because then I have a record of what is said so that I can reread for missed details.

But I am always amazed at what people thought they read… copy and paste becomes my friend sometimes.

Other times when I am wrong -it is a way for me to apologize and explain my misconceptions — hopefully leading me on a path of fewer miscommunications in the future.

I have also started blogging on LJ about significant personal issues (all friends only of course.) Because of the format and the ability to take time and do careful wording, I find it to be an ideal way to talk about sensitive issues in a way I normally would find difficult in RL. Simple body language and interruptions are too difficult to deal with when it is a sensative issue and I also know that when people are reading it – it is because they choose to. They are not simply being polite. So I like the pull format

It is also very useful to have the comment section where I can hopefully explain any difficulties or misconceptions about what I have written.

thanks for the thought process!