Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 1999/05/28
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]Bernard wrote: > > Thank you for the advice, but I won't. The use of smileys not only > means admitting to have low literary capabitities, but is also an > assumption that the reader is half illiterate. Besides, I'm rather > amused when people smack on their own face when they don't grasp an > obvious joke. > Written communication, especially the rather diluted version prevalent in email, lacks a great amount of nuances, intonation, character and other information present in oral communication. Including Smileys to indicate humor/that something shouldn't be taken too seriously is an effective way to overcome one aspect of this somewhat impoverished medium. The reader is not half illiterate, but they are also not capable of peeking into your brain to read your intentions. Look at it as doing the reader a favour, a courtesy. With the vast differences in culture and background, what may seem like an obvious joke to you may not to someone else. And vice versa. Using Smileys acknowledges that you are not assuming the whole world thinks just like you do. M. - -- Martin Howard, Grad. Schl. for Human-Machine Interaction, | HMI/IKP, Linkoping University, SE-581 83 Linkoping, Sweden.| Just Tel: +46 13 28 5741; Fax: +46 28 2579; ICQ: 354739 | say "DOOH" E-mail: marho@ikp.liu.se; www.iav.ikp.liu.se/staff/marho/ +------------