How flame wars begin...

[graculus]

According to recent research published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, people receiving email have only a 50-50 chance of ascertaining the tone of any message correctly. The study also shows that people think they've correctly interpreted the tone of e-mails they receive 90 percent of the time.

Comments

[graculus.livejournal.com]

It is interesting, though I dare say that the sample was quite small too, really. It's not clear whether these people already knew each other, or if they were just random people dragged in off the campus...

Of course, there's an assumption that people always react the same way, as well, which clearly isn't always the case - everyone has their 'buttons' and so mailing people is sometimes a bit like walking through a minefield and waiting to see if you get 'lucky' or not...

[st-crispins.livejournal.com]

Communicating electronically is difficult. We are often talking to folks we've never even met and have no idea what they look like, never mind how they react to anything.

That's part of the problem, too. The Interet expands our circle of interaction but we're often venturing into unknown territory without so much as a map.

Research has also shown that because we don't see faces, folks will say things and behave in ways they never would in face to face communication. It's easy to forget that there's a living breathing human being with feelings on the other side of that screen typing out that text.