Hi.

My name is Mandy.

And I spend a lot of time in social media. (There’s a confession in and of itself.)

And sometimes words on a screen can be misunderstood.

By you.

And by me.

I know that I’m not the only one who sometimes struggles to say things clearly. To find words that carry the tone and emotions of what I’m saying. But sometimes there aren’t enough words, and not enough s and s and s to make things come across the way we intend.

Earlier this month, a good friend of mine left a really thoughtful comment on my blog, and I think I may have misread his intentions. I may have missed the tone; and, as you would expect, I responded based on that misunderstanding. (No, I’m not gonna tell you who or when. You’ll just have to wonder.)

It happens sometimes, as hard as we try to be clear and friendly and warm and all that. It still happens. There aren’t enough emoticons to overcome limitations of typing expression-less words in a text-box.

I’d love to learn from your experiences… So, how do you compensate? How do you make up for those limitations?