Do you often find people reading their own assumptions into your posts? Sometimes I will avoid social media, even here, because I always get replies that contain erroneous assumptions. I wonder if it's a general problem or if I am not being clear. Or perhaps my life and personality is just that atypical and what would be true for most is not for me.
of course dah that is what we do with everything
it's tricky to respond on target when knowledge is really limited. When we add the condition that folks are working from a toolbox of what they themselves think they know about, or want to believe for the sake of thier heart or the need to be correct there's lots of chances for facts to get bent or created to suit that purpose. For me, your post outlined a very difficult, complex scenario ripe for misunderstandings and bad advice. the only helpful advice i have emphasizes communication and attention. i wish you the best. ✌
Yes. Agree. I also think when we are learning exposition in school brevity is always emphasized (at leastin my highschool). I remember being once told by my ninth-grade teacher to leave out the obvious details. I remember pointing out that what seems obvious is often subjective and depends upon culture (concepts, for example, like "the ninth grade" are based on the American school system - and only the most popular one at that).
@towkneed PS. To my last. You also need to be very careful about your first line/title, a lot of people will not read beyond that, or will only scim beyond that. So using clever tricks like inverting what you said in your first line, is asking for trouble. And above all else. Never, NEVER, Never, attempt irony.
You have to be very careful about what you type. Making sure that every sentence and paragraph is plain and clear with no possibilities for misunderstandings, even if that means writing in a very long winded style, of the sort you would use when writing to dyslexic ten year olds. ( There are quite a few dyslexic ten year olds on this site, not just me. ) You will still get misunderstood, but that reduces the numbers.
I assume you are correct in your assumptions.
Would it be too much of me to assume that I have understood your comment correctly?
You touch upon a complex area of human communication.
As @diaco suggests, face-to-face communication is much richer than just words written on an (electronic) page, and so that form of communication can disambiguate a lot of possible ambiguity.
As @p-nullifidian suggests, it takes time and effort to read other people's words closely and to ponder the writer's real intentions. Again as he suggests many people don't bother to do that.
For myself, I am aware that any given word or phrase can mean different things in different parts of the English-speaking world.
As @lerlo suggests, people can change the meaning of words in their own minds to suit themselves.
Looking at your own bio, I would suggest that it might be a mistake to think that even 10% of the population has your own analytical habit of mind.
I hope this helps.
(edited for typo)
Sometimes what you write reminds the reader of something they have seen or experienced in their own life that perhaps you have not.
Being quick to toss out any reply that seems like an "assumption" to you is to actually negate your post....why ask a question if you are so sure you already know all the answers?
Most of us, maybe all of us, seem hardwired to immediately react to what we read. It is only upon a rereading, and a reflection on the original comment (and more importantly our response), that we can better gauge our emotional—intellectual balance when posting to the site.
And a lot of people won't bother with all of that.
I think that’s just the way people are.
Always.
Would add social media encourages that behaviour with it's 2 dimensional communication. Body language does improve communication which is none existent on sites like this.
@puff Sorry, I am not being critical, but you really do have to be careful about what you type, that's one reason for the failings. If for example you read your second sentence again, I think that you will find that it says, that there is no communication on this site, and not, what I think is what you intended, no, "body language". As I say I am not being critical, we all do it, I have done it hundreds of times, but it just goes to show how easily misunderstandings happen.
You have to try to make sure every sentence and paragraph is plain and clear with no possibilities for misunderstandings, even if that means writing in a very long winded style, of the sort you would use when writing to dyslexic ten year olds. ( There are quite a few dyslexic ten year olds on this site, not just me. ) You will still get misunderstood, but that reduces the numbers.
@Fernapple What you say is true and I usually adhere to the KISS principle (Keep It Simple Stupid). What I did mean was online communication is 2 dimensional as in a dimension is missing, being picking up on subtleties like body language, facial expressions, voice tone as mentioned above.
I will will take your criticism on board and try to write clearer. Cheers