In the previous blog posts I have discussed how nonverbals play a role in face-to-face communication, as well as how technology has made impacts on the way we communicate today. In this blog post I will discuss how different texting styles, autocorrect, punctuation, and emoticons affect how a text message is read and how it relates to face-to-face communication.
As we have previously learned, technology has become almost a necessity in most peoples’ lives. We have also learned that nonverbal communication makes up ninety-three percent of a message, so without nonverbal communication, many parts of a text message can be misinterpreted. Mobile text messaging has become the preferred medium of communication between teens and their friends. “As of 2010, some 75% of 12-17 year-olds owned cell phones. 88% of teen cell phone users are text-messengers" (Lenhart 2010, 2).
Every person who uses text messaging to communicate with others has a certain texting style unique to them, and the more you text someone the more you understand and pick up on their texting style. Personally, I know that when I am texting my dad the awkward multiple spaces between words and the excessive use of periods means nothing serious, that is just his texting style. As for my mom, a period usually means she is serious and she loves to overuse emoticons when she is happy.
A problem arises when you do not know someone’s texting style well or if it is different from your own texting style. Interpretation of each other’s messages may lead to a misunderstanding. “Because text messaging lacks tone, emotions, facial expressions, gestures, body language, eye contact, oral speech and the traditional face-to-face conversation, it is likely that the message may cause misinterpretation, misunderstanding, and even deception” (Sheikh 2012, 1). As mentioned from the Ball State Daily News, certain words like “whatever” is commonly misunderstood, due to the fact that the word has multiple meanings (Sheikh 2012).
Another thing researchers say is important to think about when interpreting a text message, is the mood of both the sender and receiver. If the sender is in a great mood, but the receiver has had a terrible day, the message sent by the person in a good mood, may have been taken the wrong way by the person in the bad mood because of other things that have happened that day but the sender would not realize that because they cannot sense the emotions, facial expressions, gestures, body language, eye contact, and oral speech of the receiver (Sheikh 2012). The way in which someone is feeling at that moment plays a lot into how they are going to send and respond to text messages.
A difference in communication between genders is another aspect that can have an impact on the interpretation of a text message. As proven by research studies, boys are more likely to focus on the events described in a text message, while girls are more likely to focus more on the emotions when sending a text message (Amin n.d.).
Autocorrect and punctuation are also two more aspects that come into play when interpreting a text message. With today’s smartphone technology autocorrect can more times than not send a message that has been spelled in correctly or changed to a different word. Autocorrect can quickly change the meaning of your message and more often than not confuse the person receiving your message if you do next catch the error. Although autocorrect is not a huge deal, seeing as you can quickly fix and resend the message with the correct words, it can lead the person receiving your message to be a bit confused or misinterpret your message.
Also, the manner in which someone punctuates their messages can lead to misinterpretations as well. Some people naturally overuse exclamation points when text messaging, where others only use them to add emphasis to their texts. Same goes for periods or no punctuation at all. Much of this has to do with a person’s texting style but punctuation can tell you a lot more than you realize. If one of my friend’s uses periods, I know she is upset, but if my dad uses periods, which he always does, I know that nothing is wrong. Again this goes back to the fact of whether or not you know and understand the sender’s texting style. One issue that has evolved since the use of texting abbreviations like “OMG” or “LOL” is that students are beginning to write with texting abbreviations. According to Times Daily, sixteen year old Jordan Setliff says, she sees a lot of people use the abbreviations when they write. “They write like they text, and it’s really sad,” (Smith 2013, 1).
Emoticons, also referred to as emojis, are relatively new and have blown up in the world of text messaging. “Combining a textual message with a semi- imagery representation of a face adds new layers of meaning, guides the recipients’ interpretation of the message, and expresses the sender’s emotional state” (Persson et al. 2001, 2). Some people enjoy using emojis, while others may see it as unnecessary. Emojis do help though in the interpreting of someone’s emotions and because you cannot read emotion, emojis help the receiver better understand how the sender is feeling, or how they feel about the message/conversation being communicated.
Although text messaging is efficient and makes communicating with others easier, there can be many aspects that can cause the interpreting of the message to be misconstrued. An individual’s texting style, preferred uses of punctuation, autocorrect errors and emoticons all have an impact on the interpretation or misinterpretation of a text message. In the future it is important to take all of these aspects into consideration and if you have something important to communicate with someone or you think there is a high likely hood of there being misunderstanding or misinterpretation, it is probably best to just talk it out face-to-face.
Call to Action:
I challenge you to spend less time communicating through digital text, an example being text messaging, and spend more time communicating face-to-face. You can eliminate almost all of these easily made miscommunications by talking with someone face-to-face instead of over text message. You can also improve your communication skills by talking with people more often face-to-face.
References
Amin, A., Kersten, B., Kulyk, O., Pelgrim, P., & Wang, C. (n.d.). SenseMS: A User-centered Approach to Enrich the Messaging Experience for Teens by Non-verbal Means. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
Lenhart, A., Ling, R., Campbell, S., & Purcell, K. (2010, April 20). Teens and Mobile Phones: Text Messaging Explodes as Teens Embrace It as the Centerpiece of Their Communication Strategies with Friends. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
Persson, P., Karlgren, J., Korhonen, P., Galore, J., Tierney, M., Redmon, C., ... Laaksolahti, J. (2001, April 25). Expressive Messaging on Mobile Platforms. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
Sheikh, S. (2012, May 30). Communication and Miscommunication- Text Messaging. Retrieved February 19, 2015, from https://mediaartts.wordpress.com/social-networking/83-2/
Smith, T. (2013, April 30). Lost art of conversation. Retrieved February 19, 2015, from http://www.timesdaily.com/archives/lost-art-of-conversation/article_f8118f14-9849-5cc5-88f3-3dbd68d600d9.html
Images
{Untitled Online Image of emoticons} Retrieved May 5, 2015 from http://googlygooeys.tumblr.com/post/731131074/emoticons-are-so-overrated-pfffft-p-s-hey
{Untitled image quote} Retrieved May 10, 2015 from Pinterest
As we have previously learned, technology has become almost a necessity in most peoples’ lives. We have also learned that nonverbal communication makes up ninety-three percent of a message, so without nonverbal communication, many parts of a text message can be misinterpreted. Mobile text messaging has become the preferred medium of communication between teens and their friends. “As of 2010, some 75% of 12-17 year-olds owned cell phones. 88% of teen cell phone users are text-messengers" (Lenhart 2010, 2).
Every person who uses text messaging to communicate with others has a certain texting style unique to them, and the more you text someone the more you understand and pick up on their texting style. Personally, I know that when I am texting my dad the awkward multiple spaces between words and the excessive use of periods means nothing serious, that is just his texting style. As for my mom, a period usually means she is serious and she loves to overuse emoticons when she is happy.
A problem arises when you do not know someone’s texting style well or if it is different from your own texting style. Interpretation of each other’s messages may lead to a misunderstanding. “Because text messaging lacks tone, emotions, facial expressions, gestures, body language, eye contact, oral speech and the traditional face-to-face conversation, it is likely that the message may cause misinterpretation, misunderstanding, and even deception” (Sheikh 2012, 1). As mentioned from the Ball State Daily News, certain words like “whatever” is commonly misunderstood, due to the fact that the word has multiple meanings (Sheikh 2012).
Another thing researchers say is important to think about when interpreting a text message, is the mood of both the sender and receiver. If the sender is in a great mood, but the receiver has had a terrible day, the message sent by the person in a good mood, may have been taken the wrong way by the person in the bad mood because of other things that have happened that day but the sender would not realize that because they cannot sense the emotions, facial expressions, gestures, body language, eye contact, and oral speech of the receiver (Sheikh 2012). The way in which someone is feeling at that moment plays a lot into how they are going to send and respond to text messages.
A difference in communication between genders is another aspect that can have an impact on the interpretation of a text message. As proven by research studies, boys are more likely to focus on the events described in a text message, while girls are more likely to focus more on the emotions when sending a text message (Amin n.d.).
Autocorrect and punctuation are also two more aspects that come into play when interpreting a text message. With today’s smartphone technology autocorrect can more times than not send a message that has been spelled in correctly or changed to a different word. Autocorrect can quickly change the meaning of your message and more often than not confuse the person receiving your message if you do next catch the error. Although autocorrect is not a huge deal, seeing as you can quickly fix and resend the message with the correct words, it can lead the person receiving your message to be a bit confused or misinterpret your message.
Also, the manner in which someone punctuates their messages can lead to misinterpretations as well. Some people naturally overuse exclamation points when text messaging, where others only use them to add emphasis to their texts. Same goes for periods or no punctuation at all. Much of this has to do with a person’s texting style but punctuation can tell you a lot more than you realize. If one of my friend’s uses periods, I know she is upset, but if my dad uses periods, which he always does, I know that nothing is wrong. Again this goes back to the fact of whether or not you know and understand the sender’s texting style. One issue that has evolved since the use of texting abbreviations like “OMG” or “LOL” is that students are beginning to write with texting abbreviations. According to Times Daily, sixteen year old Jordan Setliff says, she sees a lot of people use the abbreviations when they write. “They write like they text, and it’s really sad,” (Smith 2013, 1).
Emoticons, also referred to as emojis, are relatively new and have blown up in the world of text messaging. “Combining a textual message with a semi- imagery representation of a face adds new layers of meaning, guides the recipients’ interpretation of the message, and expresses the sender’s emotional state” (Persson et al. 2001, 2). Some people enjoy using emojis, while others may see it as unnecessary. Emojis do help though in the interpreting of someone’s emotions and because you cannot read emotion, emojis help the receiver better understand how the sender is feeling, or how they feel about the message/conversation being communicated.
Although text messaging is efficient and makes communicating with others easier, there can be many aspects that can cause the interpreting of the message to be misconstrued. An individual’s texting style, preferred uses of punctuation, autocorrect errors and emoticons all have an impact on the interpretation or misinterpretation of a text message. In the future it is important to take all of these aspects into consideration and if you have something important to communicate with someone or you think there is a high likely hood of there being misunderstanding or misinterpretation, it is probably best to just talk it out face-to-face.
Call to Action:
I challenge you to spend less time communicating through digital text, an example being text messaging, and spend more time communicating face-to-face. You can eliminate almost all of these easily made miscommunications by talking with someone face-to-face instead of over text message. You can also improve your communication skills by talking with people more often face-to-face.
References
Amin, A., Kersten, B., Kulyk, O., Pelgrim, P., & Wang, C. (n.d.). SenseMS: A User-centered Approach to Enrich the Messaging Experience for Teens by Non-verbal Means. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
Lenhart, A., Ling, R., Campbell, S., & Purcell, K. (2010, April 20). Teens and Mobile Phones: Text Messaging Explodes as Teens Embrace It as the Centerpiece of Their Communication Strategies with Friends. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
Persson, P., Karlgren, J., Korhonen, P., Galore, J., Tierney, M., Redmon, C., ... Laaksolahti, J. (2001, April 25). Expressive Messaging on Mobile Platforms. Retrieved March 4, 2015.
Sheikh, S. (2012, May 30). Communication and Miscommunication- Text Messaging. Retrieved February 19, 2015, from https://mediaartts.wordpress.com/social-networking/83-2/
Smith, T. (2013, April 30). Lost art of conversation. Retrieved February 19, 2015, from http://www.timesdaily.com/archives/lost-art-of-conversation/article_f8118f14-9849-5cc5-88f3-3dbd68d600d9.html
Images
{Untitled Online Image of emoticons} Retrieved May 5, 2015 from http://googlygooeys.tumblr.com/post/731131074/emoticons-are-so-overrated-pfffft-p-s-hey
{Untitled image quote} Retrieved May 10, 2015 from Pinterest