Thursday, December 13, 2007

The Email (whats wrong with it?)

There are many problems plaguing the world of internet messaging. There are of course your everyday perverts, stalkers, and spammers. The most problematic issue associated with text based messaging systems, however, is the inability to hear fluctuations in a persons voice. Have you ever gotten a message from someone and then wandered if they were being facetious. The beautiful language of sarcasm is often lost in emails due to the lack of tone. Even though you meant your statement of, "Wow, nice picture." to be an insult they in turn took it as a compliment because the inability to discern the fluctuations in your voice. Unfortunate misunderstandings like these happen everyday due to this serious issue. There are a few internet tools put into place in a lame attempt to nullify this problem. You have your standard lol to show laughter and there are the emoticons. These systems are juvenile and low tech. My proposition is this, 4 new keys on the standard keyboard. These keys will be Red, Blue, Green, and Purple. These will be toggle keys like ctrl, shift, and alt. Red will express anger, Blue sadness, Green sarcasm and Purple joy. Problem solved.

1 comment:

carrie doan said...

genius...

but what about the emotions paranoia and zest? we surely can't leave those out.