Q: Why is text messaging stupid?

[universaldonor]

Q: I intuitively know that text messaging is a shitty way to communicate. But why?
A: It's complicated.
(edited and reposted from a comment I wrote here at

Comments

[anonymous]

i really, really want to hear your theory as to why people are, in fact, SO BAD at interpreting the emotional content of e-mail. i like theories and i like marvelous.

So who are you? why don't you sign in? I like it when people want me to talk more!

[universaldonor]

Basically because humans evolved over millions of years from a string of creatures that were naturally selected to survive partially due to their ability to communicate. Humans are the only ones with language, and our ability to use language developed very recently -- like within the last... let's be generous and say 50,000 years -- and WRITING only within the last 6,000.

So basically, the thing is, emotion is communicated non-verbally. We sometimes use words to describe our emotions, but REALLY it's all communicated without words. To see what I mean, consider these common examples:
<> You ask someone how they're doing and they say "fine." But you know, in spite of their WORDS, that they are not fine. You pester them to make sure you heard them right, because the alternative (that they are lying, at least to you and possibly to themselves) is unpleasant to consider.
<> Someone apologizes to you, using all the words you would use to apologize. And yet you doubt their sincerity, because you cannot FEEL their sincerity