Feeling Misunderstood ?
It turns out that there’s an incredible amount of information on the web regarding the dangers of email miscommunication. Miscommunication happens when one person doesn’t communicate enough information to the other person, or that other person misinterprets the real meaning of their words. According to NYDaily news, it’s important to be able to see the person’s body language and facial expressions. Any time you are communicating via e-mail, you are not getting the same input you would be if you were in person. Those visuals give you important context clues. It’s a medium that doesn’t allow for tone or nuance, and it’s a fast, often impulsive way to communicate, which can be great – except when it isn’t. “It’s not appropriate for trying to figure out complex issues that one solid conversation could suffice. Dealing with sensitive situations over e-mail is just incredibly risky. Then there’s the amount of hours we waste trying to bring everyone back on the right track.”
E-mail, of course, has a multitude of virtues: it’s quick and convenient, democratizes access and lets us stay in touch with loads of people we could never see or call. It enables us to accomplish huge amounts of work.
But as humans, once our interest is sparked by something, we usually can’t leave it alone. Humans are masters at squeezing every last ounce of meaning from everything we’re presented with, even it’s only a colon followed by a left bracket.
Smilies didn’t change the way a message was interpreted. Overall, the effect of emoticons was relatively small.
All of the studies reported that the receiver will always interpret the message more negatively. We always assume the worst.
ah ha. This is where the trouble starts.
I tend to enjoy writing a witty email and may even giggle out loud at my coy and clever remarks as I write them. The problem is that, apparently, we tend to misinterpret positive e-mail messages as more neutral, and neutral ones as more negative, than the sender intended. Even jokes are rated as less funny by recipients than by senders. According to an article on NYtime .com, the person on the other end actually hears seriousness, exasperation and even criticism. That does put a whole new spin on it.
Another study asked if electronic communications convey ideas clearly. It studied why emails are so misunderstood and on how well sarcasm is detected in electronic messages. Their conclusion: Not only do e-mail senders overestimate their ability to communicate feelings, but e-mail recipients also overestimate their ability to correctly decode those feelings.
Other notes by reliableplant.com
*small initial differences between email correspondents can easily grow,
*email exchanges will be smoother the better you know the person.
*recipients who ask clarifying questions or restate the intention of an e-mail are more likely to perceive emotions more accurately.
*the more intense the relationship, the more scrutiny and potential for error. An employee reading an email form a boss may find hidden meanings and hints at intentions excavated from every sentence.
So stay in touch, communicate often, but the general rule of thumb is that when the same issue is being discussed back and forth in 3 or 4 emails, it’s time to pick up the phone. 
