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Seven Reason Smackdown-Part 4

Yooou though I’d forgotten, didn’t you?  You thought I’d lost all my anger towards this assbag.  Well, there are two things that are never missing from my world: Burt’s Bees and anger.  Onward.

#4. Online company only makes us lonelier.

Oh, really?

According to this guy, all virtual interaction  serves to deepen the depression that is our collective lives.  This is because without body language or tone of voice, we are missing out on 93% of the message being conveyed.  Furthermore, we filter all messages through our current mood, which, seeing as we living in the 21st century, is apparently a crappy one.  Thus, because we take all these messages to be snide and mean to match our already bad mood, we can never feel happy because everyone talking to us online is snide and mean, and has nothing nice to say to us.

Really?

I beg to differ.  For the first two years of college, I was in a long distance relationship with a guy going to school over 500 miles away.  Among other methods that we used to stay in touch were instant messaging and e-mailing.  Especially with the busy schedules that we both juggled, these means of communicating were invaluable for us to stay active in each other’s lives.  Was it as good as sitting next to him and having a live conversation?  Fuck no!  But it sure beat the hell out of a letter.  And tell you what, the messages that he sent me were neither snide, nor mean.  In fact, some of them were even able to *gasp* make me feel better when I was in a bad mood!  I can safely say, and I’m sure he’d agree, (I’d ask him, but I’m trying to avoid being the creepy stalker ex,) that there’s no way our relationship would have lasted as long as it did without the aid of virtual communication.

I think the author of this article is speaking with the voice of an older generation, (no offence, older generation,) one who has not grown up with virtual communication so commonplace.  Having a conversation via virtual means requires the use of a dialect all its own.  “lol,” “lmao,” “*gasp,* and the infamous “:)” are all means for conveying the body language that is missing in virtual communication.  Lame and annoying means, but effective, nonetheless.  Those of us who are fluent in virtual communication are surprisingly adept at expressing ourselves with subtlety and depth, and gleaning full meaning from messages sent to us.  Is it as fullfilling as a face-to-face conversation with our friends and loved ones?  Of course not!  But with friends and family spread across the country, personal interaction is not always possible.  So we takes what we can gets and cherish the joy that even limited and impersonal communication can bring us.

I also wonder that anyone who is so stuck in their foul mood that they will interpret messages as meanspirited due to their mood will have different results in a personal setting.  As someone who spends a good deal of time being angry at the world, (hey, there’s a lot of dumbasses out there, and they all feel the need to either sit in my blind spot or ask me if I’m satisfied with my cell phone carrier,) I can attest from experience that if I’m in a bad mood, even the kindest of words from a stranger can still make me want to punch them in the face due to my subconscious misinterpretation.  A kind word is a kind word, no matter what format it’s being sent it; either you’re going to accept it or you’re not.  It has nothing to do with how it’s being conveyed to you; it has everything to do with who’s sending it and how much of an asshole you’re going to be that day.

And I know.  My asshole capabilities are astounding.

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