WHY TEXT MESSAGES CAN BE SO EASILY MISCONSTRUED
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Text message miscommunication can escalate quickly. We’ve all been there; you’ve received a text message from a friend or family member. you’ve read the message, completely misunderstood the true meaning and spent the rest of the day confused, upset or sent a message back which has utterly baffled the recipient. Before you know it you’ve both sent weird possibly hurtful messages and all your friend really wanted to know was if you were still popping round on Saturday.
One of the biggest reasons text messages are so easily misconstrued is that most people, when texting don’t bother to use any grammar or punctuation and often use abbreviations or emoticons for speed and convenience. Without grammar and punctuation, a simple sentence can be read and perceived in many different ways. It’s very difficult to say with any certainty what the sender’s true intention was.
A woman without her man is nothing.
A woman, without her man, is nothing.
A woman: without her, man is nothing
(Lynne Truss, 2009, p.9)
It’s also very hard to tell the tone of a message, whether the sender is angry, happy, joking etc. Some people favour using capital letters to portray shouting or prefer to end a message with three or four exclamation or question marks to convey they are perplexed, angry or require their question answered immediately. Others like to use emoticons to show the sender how they are feeling for example a smiley or sad face at the end of a text, but again many do not. When the reader cannot hear the tone of voice of the sender or see their facial expressions and body language, communication can quickly break down. Without these essential social cues, we can all find text messages quite difficult to interpret at times.
We are more likely to interpret a message as being written in a negative way if we are upset, anxious or in a bad mood. Equally we are more likely to interpret a message as being positive if we are in a good mood. This can be problematic as If we fail to recognise the atmosphere of a situation it is likely we will reply in the wrong tone, and if what is trying to be communicated is a serious matter this could cause a lot of offence quite quickly.
Predictive text is also another easy way to cause offence while text messaging.
Predictive text is a texting tool used on mobile phones. After you’ve typed a few letters the tool predicts the word you require and changes what’s typed to its chosen word. This can be very helpful when unsure of spelling or simply in a rush, but the downside is, word prediction software doesn’t always get it right. It can sometimes choose a word that leaves your message either making no sense at all or, as some unfortunate people have found out, leaves you with a message that does make sense but is very much not what you intended. When in a rush people rarely check their messages before they press send and this can result in a mortified sender and a very confused and embarrassed reader.
With all the pitfalls of texting and the many ways in which we can misinterpret them it’s amazing that anyone has ever read a text message and understood what the sender intended. Text messaging is fast and convenient but is not always the easiest medium to communicate. All we can do is be aware of how easily our own text messages can be misunderstood and think first about what the best way would be to communicate a particular piece of information. If the information being sent is important, we should treat it as such and take the time to deliver it in a clearer more personal way.
Reference List
Failblog (2019) Pregnant. Available at: https://www.Failblog.cheezburger.com/autocowrecks/tag/pregnant (Accessed: December 6th 2019).
Truss, L. (2009) Eat shoots and leaves. London: Fourth Estate.
