221 : Cyber feel

My cousin got me this mug a while ago from some trip he went to, and this has to be the most MYSTERIOUS mug I own. I really don't get, a plain mug with Cyber Feel written on it. However, what I though it that cyber feel is plain as plain as the mug's print! Which brought me to the latest obsession I have with Body Language.

Cyber communication is mainly done through text, yes there are ways to spice it up and add a more "feeling related" touch, like simple smileys :} pictures, animated pictures, video, voice,, etc. However, I still think that personal communication is more real, not conditioned by time or connection barriers. Yes personal meeting can be restricted with time but when ever one needs to shut the other or get away from them, they can simply switch the communication medium off! However in personal meeting, you have to leave & the way you leave will tell a lot.

Nevertheless, cyber communication can carry feelings! Will focus on text chats:

Chat pattern
You can observe the person's chat pattern, their usual greeting and talk pattern, reactions to funny/sad/interesting/dull things. That can help in assessing the mood of the person you are talking to BUT its not firm! It is very easy to fake.

Emotions & Smileys
Adding an emotional face or a smiley can indicate one's feelings or reactions to a line they read, yet those are user chosen, hence they can be an exaggeration, similar, or lower than how a person really feels. Even if the sender is trying to be as accurate as possible in using them, the receiver might interpret them as wished or differently.

Statuses
One of the strongest indirect messages means is "Status" messages, that are originally meant to reflect a certain status of the user or an event they are doing/attending at that moment. A lot of users take advantage of that feature, to reflect current "status" and others use it to send messages, indirectly to people in their list. What I would like to shed light on particularly, who write a status containing a message or a reply to someone's action, especially if that someone is in their list! Either that message was positive or negative, it was a product of care. Wanting all the people around you to know that certain status is also a sign of needing care or attention.

LOL - BTW- BRB - TYT .... etc
The usage of Acronyms in the internet text chatting certainly made it easier to abbreviate conversation lines & in sometimes emotions! Most of them are new to me, with time they grew quickly and vastly, you really have to be up to date with them, ROFL was recent to me when I looked it up I realized that I was outdated in that area. Keeping up to date with them will certainly help a lot in understanding what the other person is saying.

So in the end, what is being written or expressed in a chat window is not as real as it is in real life, regardless of how honest or how people try to be honest, text will always allow two interpretations :] we can try to be as accurate as possible but it might slip off the course wanted. Therefore, the best thing to do is not to react directly to a chat line unless one is very sure of what is needed, someone can tell you "I hate you" or "I hate you ;p" or "I HATE YOU" but how REAL is their hate is up to the rest of the chat partly and MAJORLY to how they look and act like when saying it :} Last note, see both sides of the story, see the full picture before you judge, try to interpret text the best optimistic way possible, since life is too short to spend it on being angry or sad :>