Stop! Read this before you send a sarcastic message
Research shows online messages are misinterpreted more than half the time. Here’s what to consider so your recipient understands your tone.
I like to think I’m a funny person, but I’ve found myself trying to be amusing or sarcastic in an email or text message—and no one got the joke.
We’ve all received emails or text messages in the workplace that have made our eyebrows furrow with confusion, right? It’s easy to misinterpret the tone of an electronic communication exchange. Unfortunately, emails and text messages don’t come with a how-to guide for understanding the sender’s body language, facial expressions, and tone of voice.
A research study published in the “Journal of Personality and Social Psychology” found that online messages are misinterpreted more than 50 percent of the time and that senders believe their tone will be properly interpreted 80 percent of the time.
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