The Written Word

[robin416]

How powerful words can be, they can bring joy in to your day, they can elicit excitement, they can cause pain and more importantly they can be misunderstood by those working to understand the intent without the valuable input of body language and facial expressions.

We, as the readers and to a lesser degree the authors should remember that. We should take the extra step to make certain we understand the author's intent without going off being unhappy about what was written. Chances are without the vocalizations, the facial expression and body language it was not meant with the meaning you took it for.

Without things like LOL and smiley faces I think far more innocent words are taken in the wrong direction and too often feelings are hurt where none was ever intended.

 

[Funky Feathers]

Hi Robin, the pictures, avatars and smileys have all disappeared from my computer. I don't know what happened (while playing w/my new laptop on here) but all of a sudden the other day all that just disappeared! Do you know how to fix this so they will show up again on my computer? As it is now, no one has an avatar, the smiley tray is blank, and there are no pics anywhere on this site. Help?

 

[luvmychicknkids]

I agree 100%. With my husband military and us having lived apart for so long, a LOT of our communication is through texts, IMs, etc. Even with him, someone I know, love, am married to, there is a ton of misunderstanding and some hurt feelings. It can take a bit to get it worked out where we know what the other was trying to say. If it is that hard to get the point across accurately with someone I know inside and out, I know it can only be so much harder with people I don't know.

 

[ranchhand]

Well said and thank you, Robin.

fattie, have you done all the usual rebooting, clearing cookies and whatnot? That's all I know to suggest, I am not a computer wizard.

 

[HobokenChickenEmergency]

I know what you mean. Sarcasm can seem cruel when typed without smilies.

 

[Ec_Prokta]

Quote:
On BYC, go to Profile, then Display. See if all the little boxes are checked.

 

[speckledhen]

Hey, Robin! Glad to see you here again. You are correct, we need to try to communicate tone as much as possible when we write, though often, it seems that if someone wants to take something a certain way, numerous smilies won't even cut it. We should try not to take things personally as well as try to make our intended tone clear.

 

[beak]

No wonder I always feel so misunderstood.

 

[SweetWater]

My dad once told me, "It's not what you say, but how you say it." I believe this applies more to written word then spoken word nowadays

 

[Funky Feathers]

Quote:
On BYC, go to Profile, then Display. See if all the little boxes are checked.

Hi, tried that, all the boxes were checked, ans still nothing. I emptied my cache, rebooted, etc... What else could it be?