Email differs from ordinary conversations in many ways. Some of these ways can be better in taking less time to get things out and some may not be so great, as in messages getting misunderstood. In a face to face conversation it may take a while for someone to get what they want to get out, out. If one is not wanting to hurt one’s feelings, then they will probably try to go about something in little hints leading up to the main idea of what was wanting to be said in the first place. This can take a while depending on how many hints one may have to hint. Also in a face to face conversation, someone can read the facial expressions of the other person. They can tell if the listener understands or not and explain. The listener can also be bored and it can be read either in their body language or on their face. The messenger can easily make the conversation more interesting or change the subject to get the listener engaged. In email you cannot see the facial expressions or the body language of the receiver. You can be writing whatever you want and read it back and it makes sense. It does not mean it will make sense to the receiver. You cannot see their face or hear them ask a question for you to immediately explain yourself. Here is where people get mixed up with misunderstandings. Something sent could mean something totally different from what was received. You could have said that the present for your birthday looks good hanging on your shelf. Well, if it was something for you to wear and they got you the gift, they may be a little offended and might think you meant you wouldn’t wear it because you didn’t like it, so it sits on your shelf collecting dust. You may just liked the shirt so much, that you would rather keep it new and actually hung it up on your shelf for decoration being that it looked that awesome. Another way emails can be misunderstood is because sometimes people use abbreviations to take less time in writing what they have to say. Someone may completely miss the message or they may think you meant something else and you just set a date to take fly them out to Florida for a week’s vacation. That may be going overboard, but people automatically assume because it makes sense to the messenger when they are writing, that it makes sense to everyone else or to at least the person receiving the message. Abbreviations can also be a way to spend less time on what you have to say rather than having to explain yourself, get it all out in a short paragraph. People tend to say more in emails because they do not have to worry about being questioned or sometimes judged. It is an easy way to get everything out and avoid the emotions that go along with it, though sometimes a joke can carry along it’s laughter.
I find that so many times these miscommunications that occur from the ever ambiguous email, often leads to the most vicious arguments. Well at least for my family whenever we get into arguments because something was misread, misunderstand, or otherwise lost in translation. But despite these arguments the miscommunications are resolved because these incidents are not in a dire situation. Emotions run wild at my house, it gets intense sometimes but all you can do at the end of it all is laugh it off and joke about it. In an email you cannot replicate these moments of laughter, the emotion in an email is limited to emoticons ;). They get the point across, but it just lacks the emotion, the passion. Face to face emotional contact has this locked down, emails fail miserably. To tell someone that you love someone via email is nice. It shows your love, but it does so in a miniscule manner. When you sit there with someone and lock eyes, hold hands, and tell someone you love them, this will definitely be charged with emotion and more meaningful. This is what makes physical contact the better choice over online communication.
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