Posted on May 2nd, 2012 at 1:31 pm by 
There can be something really dangerous about texting, messageing, emailing, tweeting … it is the BIG problem of NOT being understood!
You can’t get over irony, sarcasm or humour… in a text or email, what sounds amazingly witty inside your head can read like sheer drivel or simple rudeness, ….the keyboard is not always your friend..
I recently ‘nearly’ upset a very good friend via email…. what I thought was harmless and witty banter for her was weird and bit to brutal.. later found out she was having a very bad time with her other half and wanted love, affection and massive amounts of sympathy, any other time she would have replied bigger, better and some! My jokey frame of mind was only in MY head, she had a whole lot of other stuff in hers and it was all lost in translation as they say!…A catalogue of little misunderstandings, she needed hot chocolate not hot gossip…
By the same token you can’t always get over how cross you are feeling, let down, put out, well and truly peed off.. when you read one of your heartfelt strongly worded missives back you feel like a whinny jerk who came across as not only throwing toys out of the pram but letting the brakes off and running the pram down the hill into the nearest river.
Classic email from boss, she/he is asking for something totally impossible to be done before you ‘clock off’ it is approx 3 mins before home time, what feels like a totally reasonable reply of ” I am so sorry but I have to leave on time today because…mothers birthday, grandma funeral, dentist for wisdom teeth removal, gyny appointment, giving birth” all urgent and valid reasons for why you can’t oblige but it reads like a 6 year old trying to get out of gym class.
As for twitter, think of the times you hit the send button before spell-check or re-reading something that seemed hilarious two seconds ago and when you  see it there in all it’s insane glory…time to hang head in shame! Your idea may have been to impress a very funny follower only to come over as  stalker ‘try hard’ or simply spouting moronic garbage.
It is very hard to cultivate or to try to keep a relationship going by way of chatter on tweeter, there are the goddesses of the tweet… Grace Dent, Caitlin Moran, EmmaK67 (Kennedy) some the ‘ funny ladies’ I follow and I once had a reply from @SarahMillican, my how my tweeting heart soared… there are  authors, actors, comedians, beauty and fashion journo’s and bloggers we keep a keen eye on, vintage web sites, cake makers, jewellery makers and many, many other amazing folk who tweet just because they can. I have made some wonderful virtual friends on twitter, you read the highs and lows, the interesting lives folk have…. and you keep fingers firmly crossed you don’t upset anyone with your possible ‘off’ evening of unwitty wit!
Then there is the question of follower numbers..trying to get the figures high, getting to a 1000 is no mean feat, then you lose 5, 6 or 7 on a ‘follow friday’  you you feel the hurt and take it personally, that leads to even more try hard banter..and you lose more! PLEASE FOLLOW ME ON  @cupcakefancy  the follow prostitution starts again.
All in all then the phone or better still is a night out, face to face, is still the best way to keep up with your nearest and dearest…to practise being the clown, the belle of the ball, the unpaid comedian with razor sharp words or is it? at least on an email or text…or even twitter they can’t see your red blushing face!
