- When someone LOLs. Are they really LOLing, or are they sitting in the dark, staring at my statement in disgust?
- When I yell at a PR dude, and he emails back with an undeservedly-friendly two-sentence response and a smiley face. I am suspicious of smileys.
- When I send someone a link and they don't respond for two minutes, then they give me a generic but satisfying "OMFG" or "LOL." Did you really click on that link, or did you fake me out with an elongated pause? (For this reason, I give tests. "Think fast: lines in the chorus! Color of main character's face! Tagline!")
- The state dude was in when he embedded yet another College Humor video in my MySpace comment box. Was he laughing at the time, or did he do it with a furrowed brow, the picture of concentration his teachers were never able to see?
- The empty space before iChat video loads. I want to see that vulnerable moment when people are picking at their noses and fussing with their hair.
- When somebody leaves a long, thoughtful comment with no typos. Show me the TextEdit version, because you know there was one.
You know what would be awesome? A back-end timer that divulges how long it took to produce a comment. That way admins can see if someone copy/pasted
(elapsed time: 1.5 seconds) or if they're one of those comment framers:
"Great perspective, Carol. I only wish I had a rebuttal! :-)" Elapsed time: 26 minutes.
4 comments:
i hate those goddamn smileys. girls who write that to guys do so with the full intention to confuse
I know I do!
this is really funny. for me, i've noticed it's gotten to the point with my friends that we have to say "no, really, i'm laughing right now. you're too funny." because lol simply doesn't cut it.
Wow, you nailed the problem with email and text communication. There's a study somewhere (I'm too lazy to search) on how pure text is many times more likely to be misunderstood that nonverbal communication. A slight critique typing sounds like FU, and a slight jest sounds like a guffaw. And, worst, email threads or blog comments tend to devolve into attacks on whose ancestors climbed down from the trees first.
So I actually like smiley faces for two reasons. They put a slight "up" spin on the message, to ensure the recipient won't take it wrong, and they bring a well-needed bit of levity to stuffy businesses. Even us guys use them. :)
Except for the nose thing, way to cute :+)
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