You’re never fully dressed without a smile

”Its hard to understand what you mean, because a chat has no emotions.” I often have to use these words to make sure I don’t land myself into a miscommunication with a friend or family. Facebook is such a blessing to keep in touch with people you care about but don’t see that often, but can be a downfall for your relationships as well. Lately, I’ve started to have some good conversations with a co-worker of mine and I couldn’t help but compare our texts to our face-to-face interaction.

When that co-worker and I started to talk more we both agreed when something wasn’t clear, that it was the emotions you miss in a chat. Couple Facebook hours later, when one of us is making a joke we say things like (no sarcasm) to tell the other: Here, have the clarification that we have to make up for the lack of eye contact.

And there are the emoji’s to save the day. However its nice to have this depth into your conversation, I find myself once in a while really thinking of which smiley I have to put behind the text. To really make sure the person on the other side understands what I mean, how I mean it, and that I don’t have intensions to be mean. ”I don’t know which smiley is going to clarify this” goes through my mind on moments like that.

Are things in real life better than? Actually not. I saw my co-worker the day after we spoke online and I had a hard time trying to read his mind (;figuring him out as a person and what he means with the way he speaks). To be honest; some people are hard to read. But the fact that you’re face-to-face should be better. You have the emotions and the looks. No smileys to hide behind. While our conversations looked the same, they were still a world of a difference.

There was this sudden realisation past Sunday when I was highly enjoying my no-social-weekend. I completely checked out my internet activities and only twice a day I put it back on for a second to check for emergencies. While I was not responding to the incoming mail, whatsapps and more (which felt really good) I found myself wanting to talk more to people than usually. I’m always a basic talker when it comes to meetings, birthday parties or the people who I cross paths with at the stables. And I always thought it was a part of my character as a writer. But now I consider to log off from the interwebs a couple of weekends more.

My name is Lynn and I’ll talk more to people in real life.

– Lynn Kentin