writing

In email, which Marshall McLuhan would call a "hot" medium, we often tend to make much of things rather than little. People tend to take things personally that aren't meant personally, take things as representative that are anomalous, take things as offensive that weren't meant to be offensive, and escalate emotions at every turn. Strunk and White's advice holds true: "Check twice to see if you've said what you intended to say; chances are you haven't."

It may be simply because of a giant cultural literacy shift. For two or three generations, the written word had given way to the spoken word, by television, movies, phones. Then, suddenly, we were plunged back into writing, except we'd lost the age-old customs of writing that we'd previously had.

The fact is that very few people are masters of the written word. Facial expressions, tones of voice, the presence of other people right around — so many cues are missing in this type of communication. It's really a wonder the whole thing hasn't flamed out.