I love writing as a medium of communication. More than I love speaking, and I will tell you why: I have a decided difficulty filtering things I say in a face-to-face conversation. If it pops into my head, it pops right out of my mouth. Sometimes this has comedic consequences. And sometimes it causes me to unwittingly hurt those I interact with, because I haven't considered implications. (On very rare occasions, I purposefully say very nasty and spiteful things, but then I feel instant guilt and wish I'd held my tongue.)
Anyway, I love writing because I am not expected to react so quickly that I do not have time to mull. In fact, thinking things over makes for better written communication. This opportunity to review what I am writing allows me to pause for breath, as it were. Except that in a fast-paced conversation, pausing for breath doesn't give a person much time to surmise whether they actually want to say that just now.
With writing, I can "pause for breath" for any arbitrary amount of time I choose, and I don't turn blue in the face. Nobody I'm communicating with this way notices anything. And this way, I can vent out my rage in a draft. And then go back and nice it up. Nobody (except me) is the wiser.
And this way, I'm not yelling at anyone.
5 comments:
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I feel the exact same way.
Although, I should admit, I treat blogging much more like speaking than writing.
Here here!
Yeah, with writing you can think about what you're about to say. Speaking doesn't give you that luxury of time. >.O
I completely disagree. Actual conversation is soooo much better then written. Especially in regards to waiting time and not being able to interpret the other person based on tone, inflection and body manners. There have been so many arguments and misunderstandings I have had simply because the conversation was in type rather then in person. Alas. I have had bad times with you written word.
I'm sorry to hear that 3M, but I just have to stand by what I say. I need near-monumental amounts of pausing time to evaluate what I say to make sure I don't offend. Of course, some people will still take offense at things I've written. But at that point, it's normally not because of the way I've written them. It's because they don't like or agree with the topic or idea I'm presenting.
I agree with you. It's nice to be able to think about what you're saying. And I LOVE the delete button...you know, for the not so happy moments. :)
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