Happy & Healthy

ARE YOU ALREADY MISCOMMUNICATING?

We miscommunicate like crazy. I suggest we turn it into a verb. Everything I type via WhatsApp or email is at risk of an error in how it is interpreted. And do you know what they think now? That you even miscommunicate with your favorite friends. What a disappointment that is.

I churn out quite a bit of writing on a weekday. But in email and on the app, I at least reach the same number of characters. You have the cheaters who spam you via web WhatsApp (me), the enter-pressing fanatic (me), and the person who prefers typing over calling (me). With this trinity within me, I have a particularly high chance of expressing myself incorrectly in a digital conversation. Or rather, that people interpret it differently. Noise, then.

“In-ge-wik-keld.”

In online communication, you miss that furrowed brow or the sob in a voice. And if you ctrl-alt-delete that, then your bestie understands you about as well as that unknown man at the grocery store. Unless you really go way, waaaay back together, like in kindergarten days. But in practice, kindergarteners grow apart just as often as they grow together. And there you have to scout a new love or land a fresh job? If even your old school crew gets confused and misinterprets you, then isn’t that mission impossible?

Research shows that a good friend derives just as much meaning from an email as the distant neighbor. That gives some confidence in a relationship with strangers, but causes sniffles in the friendship zone. And what if you add a wink or avocado to it (take it easy with the eggplant, by the way)? Well, you have to be incredibly careful with emoticons. That’s a language in itself. And if you don’t speak it, you might insinuate a hot date instead of a visit to the greengrocer. But a blushing face behind a message does make you come across as more sympathetic. So if that was your intention, we can say it makes things a bit clearer.

In-ge-wik-keld. You know what? I’ll just call next time.