Over my years of being on the computer, typing papers, IM'ing friends, and being an avid texter, I've acquired quite a knack for communicating things quickly and efficiently. What I mean by this is being able to shorten message lengths to the point where its acronyms and hardly recognizable shortened words. Emoticons are a huge part of online communication, and I think they need to be focused on even more. With today's messaging systems, speed is what it's all about. Have you ever had a dedicated texting conversation? Where both of you aren't doing anything else, but sitting on a couch texting from different locations? It's crazy how fast a conversation happens, it might as well be replicating real life conditions. The Internet has created shortened versions of typical situational language, making rapid and efficient communication possible.
With a shortened vocabulary, sometimes things can be miscommunicated or misinterpreted. I used to have those slipup's where I'd say some little "dig" or joke at the person in a joking manner and it has been taken seriously, and thus, gets me in trouble. I've learned though! Now I attach a number of emoticons according to how severe the dig is. You can't take a message seriously if it's laced with :D :) :P. Like I said, I've gotten pretty good at shorthand communicating so I really don't have too many accidents or slipups these days. Maybe it happened more when I began college, back before I knew anything.
When you are having a conversation with someone in physical proximity, you subconsciously are reading the person's body language when they speak. Obviously, if your best friend says with a huge grin "I hate you", it won't be interpreted as truly hateful. However if some ex you broke up with screams "I hate you" at the top of their lungs, you can probably be sure they hate you. I don't think most people realize how much they non verbally read people when they are with them. Language becomes extremely powerful in a physical presence setting because words have much more impact when they cause physical reactions to emerge.
So essentially, I haven't had any recent communication mishaps for the past 6 months that I can remember or that are worth mentioning. I would assume that is because of my constant use of various short messaging systems. It's interesting because nothing of real moral consequence is ever transmitted across these mediums. It's always trivial things that have no real importance. I was daydreaming a few weeks ago and thinking about the central and peripheral routes, and I made the connection that texting/twittering are like my peripheral route, I devote 20% of my time responding with a quick message, and my main train of thought is never really lost in the process. I've really been making a lot of connections lately with the central and peripheral routes, applying to memories and current happenings, it's an interesting construct that I think should be taught at a much lower learning level, because I think it's that important.
I've had several different experiences with small text message miscommunications. The most common one occurred when I didn't have much time to text someone back, so I'd just text one word responses, like "oh," "ok," or "ic." The person on the receiving end of my texts just assumed I was mad or irritated, when in reality I simply didn't have the time! As for emoticons, I didn't realize use them much until I befriended someone from Korea, my friend Bryant. I'm not sure if it is because text messaging and online communication is more popular in Asia or because they're technology is streamline (something I learned from my Korean friend. He owned a phone that came out in the United States two years later).
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