{"id":4578,"date":"2012-03-05T03:33:31","date_gmt":"2012-03-04T19:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/blog\/?p=4578"},"modified":"2024-03-02T16:22:32","modified_gmt":"2024-03-02T16:22:32","slug":"the-art-of-overanalyzing-text-messages","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.visakanv.com\/archives\/2012\/03\/05\/the-art-of-overanalyzing-text-messages\/","title":{"rendered":"The Art Of Overanalyzing Text Messages"},"content":{"rendered":"

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There have been many great books and articles written about the art of writing- how to write formal letters, how to write love letters<\/a> (I’m a big fan of Tom Chiarella), and even how to write for the web<\/a>.<\/span><\/p>\n

Here’s my tongue-in-cheek guide to writing artfully in SMS format, or on Facebook and Twitter. (If you’re going to ask me what the point of such a guide might be, this article probably isn’t for you. Disengage immediately!)<\/p>\n

I think anything worth doing is worth doing well- especially in the realm of writing, or expression in general.<\/p>\n

Writing is about communication.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Face-to-face interaction is the richest form of communication. The amount of data transmitted is immense: tone of voice, inflections, \u00a0body language, facial expression, et cetera. How the message is transmitted speaks louder than the message itself.<\/p>\n

Tone matters.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When you’re writing long handwritten letters, as was commonplace in ye olde age<\/em>, you had the time and space to communicate your tone. There are all sorts of little hints, too- the style of the handwriting, the frequency of cancellations (if any), the addition of post scripts. If a letter was of great importance, you often wrote a draft before re-writing it. A letter of passion, on the other hand, might be more effective if it is written quickly, without any censorship or editing.<\/p>\n

Things have gotten a lot more succinct since then. We’ve traded dynamics for efficiency and convenience. It’s harder than ever before to express subtle emotions. But I believe it can be done. Hyper-analyse the world of SMSing? Challenge accepted!<\/p>\n

Overall structure.<\/strong><\/p>\n

I personally have a habit of SMSing in fully formed sentences, or at least well-formed fragments. But not necessarily in perfect English. For some reason, an SMS written in perfect English can be rather intimidating. I think this is partially because SMSes are necessarily short, so “What are you doing tonight?” somehow seems a little menacing, or even demanding. That’s the sort of message I’d send a business partner, or maybe even a romantic interest. It puts a hint of pressure. Between friends, I prefer “whatcha doing tonight?”<\/p>\n

The tilde<\/a> as a subtle punctuation mark. <\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/strong>I wrote this entire blog post primarily because I wanted to talk about the tilde. Oftentimes I find that the regular question mark puts the recipient on the spot. Somehow, a question mark in a text message seems a little imposing. “What are you doing tonight?” is a question. The question demands an answer.<\/p>\n

Sometimes it can be interesting to send something like “what are you doing tonight” without the question mark. This, I find, allows the recipient to interpret the urgency of the message. \u00a0These sort of things, to me, are too important to leave to chance!<\/p>\n

Enter the tilde. According to Wikipedia, this is common usage in Japanese punctuation- so I think I got this idea from watching Anime and communicating with otaku. The tilde, in Japanese culture, is used:<\/p>\n

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