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The Great Read
We all struggle to communicate on the internet. Now, young people are leading a sincere effort to clear things up.
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By Ezra Marcus
Videos by Shane O’Neill
Written language is an imperfect method for the messy, complex business of communication, where facial expressions, gestures and vocal tones transmit oceans of meaning and subtext — for those, at least, who can read them.
Words themselves offer none of that: In a famous study, Albert Mehrabian, a psychology professor at U.C.L.A., found that humans tend to perceive only a fragment of a speaker’s meaning through spoken words. Instead, he observed, most meaning is gleaned from body language and tone of voice.
In a text-only environment, how can we ever be certain other people understand what we mean when we post online? Enter tone indicators.
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Words Can Mean Lots of Things
Tone indicators are paralinguistic signifiers used at the ends of statements to help readers fill in the blanks.
Put simply, they are written shorthand for the poster’s intent and emotion. One might use “/srs,” short for “serious,” to express sincere affection for a pop culture crush.
On Twitter, users often encounter fragments of text stripped of context by the algorithmic maelstrom, requiring readers to interpret the tone of statements like “Harry Styles could run me over with a bus and I’d say thank you.”
Interpreting text can be frustrating for anyone online, but is particularly so for users who are neurodivergent — a wide category that can refer to people with a range of neurological differences including autism spectrum disorder and dyslexia. Some neurodivergent people say they have trouble deciphering the subtle cues associated with sarcasm or flirtation, in particular, and are tone-indicator enthusiasts.
This year, ideas and arguments about tone indicators have generated sprawling and passionate conversation online. Some people find them absurd, while others fiercely evangelize their importance. This is a dynamic common with emerging linguistic trends tied to accessibility and vulnerability (trigger warnings, for example, and sharing of pronouns). Even among supporters, there is broad debate about what their scope ought to be.
Tone indicators are most popular within some Twitter and Tumblr communities of young people with overlapping interests in identity representation, anime and K-pop fandom, twee aesthetics, and sensitivity toward mental health and gender issues. It’s a milieu where inclusivity is considered a paramount virtue. These people use and like tone indicators because they want to help others have better experiences online.
In recent weeks, several users have posted lists containing dozens of tone indicators ranging from “/j = joking” to “/lh = lighthearted” and “/nsx = nonsexual intent.”
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“Tone indicators are literally used to indicate the tone of what you write, since written conversation can be harder to get by people who have communication issues or just aren’t used to a certain way someone speaks online,” wrote Michael Guazzelli, who is 21 and identifies as neurodivergent, in a direct message on Twitter. “There’s plenty of different typing styles and if someone is not familiar to someone else’s, the tone indicators make everything more simple because no one has to ask what the person is talking about or what they mean with what they said.”
“It’s like, you say you hate a friend of yours, but of course you don’t — someone may misunderstand that though, so to avoid that you put /j to indicate that you wanted to make a joke,” he continued. “Or, if you actually ended your friendship with said person, you would like to use /srs (serious) so people know something is actually up and you are not playing around about the topic.”
He explained that while indicators are “mostly used by neurodivergent people,” they have been “spreading to all people who find them useful or just want to be clear and help nd people understand things (which is most appreciated by us!)”
Making Social Media a Better Place
Today’s tone indicators go a step further than, say, putting a winky-face emoji at the end of a sentence. They assign a narrow, concrete meaning to a statement, leaving no room for interpretation. They are not subtle and can deflate humor. (Picture a comedian declaring to an audience “I am joking” after saying something outrageous.)
But what tone indicators lack in artfulness, they make up for in their bulletproof inability to be misinterpreted. In complicated conversations, that goes a long way.
The growing lexicon of tone indicators, beyond helping people understand what’s sincere or what’s flirty, can feel, to the uninitiated, like another language. And at their most complex, tone indicators may veer into the patronizing.
But these semantic constructions are part of a long tradition of social media users pushing back against platform limitations. Compared to hyper-customizable GeoCities and Myspace pages of old, platforms like Twitter and Facebook rigidly restrict how much latitude users have in formatting posts.
In response, people often create informal hacks to communicate with nuance and address ever-shifting norms around language and identity. Occasionally platforms end up incorporating user-generated features, like quote-tweets, which Twitter adopted after users spent years doing so manually.
Twitter users may soon be able to indicate at least one new tone. The site is reportedly exploring the addition of a dislike button.
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All the Things We Have Tried Before Over the Centuries
For ages, posters on forums like Reddit have used “/s” at the end of a post to indicate sarcasm. But the history of tone indication is much older.
In her book “Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation,” the grammar historian Lynne Truss describes how, in 1575, a British printer named Henry Denham created a punctuation mark called the “percontation point,” a reversed question mark meant to indicate that a question was rhetorical. (“It didn’t catch on,” Ms. Truss writes.)
A century later, in his 1668 work “An Essay Towards a Real Character, and a Philosophical Language,” the Anglican clergyman and philosopher John Wilkins proposed that ironic statements could be indicated with an inverted exclamation mark.
“Wilkins’s choice of the ¡ seems most appropriate,” Keith Houston writes in his book “Shady Characters: The Secret Life of Punctuation, Symbols, and Other Typographical Marks.” “The presence of an exclamation mark already modifies the tone of a statement, and inverting it to yield an i-like character both hints at the implied i-rony and simultaneously suggests the inversion of its meaning.”
That didn’t catch on either. “Wilkins’s invention was not only the first of many proposed irony marks, but also the first of them to fail,” Mr. Houston writes.
In 2010, a company in Michigan called Sarcasm, Inc. released the “SarcMark,” essentially a dot inside of a squiggle. It was marketed as “the official, easy-to-use punctuation mark to emphasize a sarcastic phrase.” Initially sold as a font download for $1.99, it’s now available for free as a sticker pack for iMessage.
In a 2001 post, the blogger Tara Liloia proposed that tildes might be used to indicate sarcasm.
“The closest thing to a sarcasm mark is the winking smiley — and he isn’t really a professional tool. You can’t write a missive to a business associate with little cutesy ASCII faces in it. It’s just not done,” she wrote. “And no one can claim that sarcasm isn’t professional. If the amount of sarcasm in the American workplace is any indication, sarcasm is nothing but professional!”
“My solution,” she concluded, “is the tilde. ~”
While the tilde also never reached critical mass, cutesy emoji faces achieved global dominance, even among business associates. They’ve been around nearly as long as internet communication itself: The smiley face emoticon “:-)” is generally credited to a 1982 message from Scott E. Fahlman, a computer science professor at Carnegie Mellon University, after a misunderstanding that occurred when a colleague posting on the proto-internet service ARPANET made a dry joke about mercury contaminating an elevator shaft.
The utility of emoticons for tone indication quickly spread off-campus: A few months later, a researcher named James Morris sent a message titled “Communication Breakthrough” to his colleagues at the research lab Xerox Parc.
“Because you can’t see the person who is sending you electronic mail you are sometimes uncertain whether they are serious or joking,” he wrote in a message that would likely result in a very sincere cancellation today. “Recently, Scott Fahlman at CMU devised a scheme for annotating one’s messages to overcome this problem. If you turn your head sideways to look at the three characters :-), they look sort of like a smiling face. Thus, if someone sends you a message that says ‘Have you stopped beating your wife?:-)’ you know they are joking. If they say ‘I need to talk to you :-(,’ be prepared for trouble.’”
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FAQs
Do tone indicators help? ›
Why use tone indicators? Clarity can be hard to achieve in written communications, where we don't have facial expressions, body language, etc. to help us understand exactly what the other person means. So typing /j at the end of a statement lets the reader know you're joking, while /g tells them your remark is genuine.
What's the purpose of tone indicators? ›Tone indicators are paralinguistic signifiers used at the ends of statements to help readers fill in the blanks. Put simply, they are written shorthand for the poster's intent and emotion. One might use “/srs,” short for “serious,” to express sincere affection for a pop culture crush.
What is the tone indicator for rhetorical question? ›As early on as the 1580s, there have been tone indicators; Henry Dunham, an English printer, created a backwards question mark, "⸮", which he dubbed the "percontation point*. It was meant to indicate rhetorical questions. Today, we would use "/rh" or "/rt".
What are the benefits of using indicators? ›Align with your goals. Be attainable and easy to measure. Provide immediate insight into whether desired outcomes are being achieved. Have buy-in and support at all levels in the company.
Why is tone so important in communication? ›When speaking with others, your tone clarifies and conveys meaning. A phrase as simple as “I don't know” can be taken in a number of different ways depending on how you decide to express it. Your tone can not only affect how people perceive you but also their willingness to listen to you – especially in the workplace.
What are indicators 3 examples? ›Answer: (a) An indicator is a dye that shows a distinct change in colour when put in acid or base or as the ion concentration changes. Litmus, Methyl orange, china rose, turmeric, and phenolphthalein are examples of indicators.
What are three 3 types of tones in communication? ›The many different types of tone of voice
Formal. Informal. Humorous.
Some examples of natural indicators are turmeric, grape juice, red cabbage, cherries, onion, beetroot etc. Synthetic indicators are indicators which are synthesized in the laboratory. Examples of synthetic indicators include phenolphthalein, methyl orange etc. litmus paper is also an example of synthetic indicator.
Why is it important to identify tone and mood? ›GTone and mood are literary elements integrated into literary works but can also be included into any piece of writing. GIdentifying the tone and mood in literature is very important to truly understanding what an author is trying to say and can be helpful in helping to discern the theme and author's style.
What is the message of tone? ›What is Tone? "Tone in writing refers to the writer's attitude toward the reader and the subject of the message. The overall tone of a written message affects the reader just as one's tone of voice affects the listener in everyday exchanges" (Ober 88).
How does tone affect perception? ›
In contrast, for questions, tone of voice shifted perceptions of politeness for both positive and negative verbal content. Positive tone shifted perceptions toward greater polite- ness and negative tone shifted perceptions toward lesser politeness.
What are the 3 types of tones? ›Types of Tone in Writing
but here are the basic ones: Formal. Informal. Optimistic.
The tone of any piece of content can be analyzed along 4 dimensions: humor, formality, respectfulness, and enthusiasm.
How do you identify the tone of a text? ›The mood is the atmosphere of the story, and the tone is the author's attitude towards the topic. We can identify both by looking at the setting, characters, details, and word choices. By doing so, it will help us find meaning in the story or passage and help us feel more connected to the writing.
What are some examples of using indicators in everyday life? ›Indicators are used everyday both in our lives and in our laboratories. We make a cup of tea, we work in the garden, we have a bowl of cereal and throw some blueberries on it, or we may go to chemistry class and do an experiment to identify some of the properties of household substances using indicator solutions.
What are the impact of indicators? ›Impact indicators monitor the progress of achieving the program's objectives, which usually relate to some type of short-term changes. In particular impact indicators will usually relate to changes in knowledge, attitudes and intended behaviour.
What are examples of tone in communication? ›Examples of tones of voice include formal and informal, humorous, factual, respectful, assertive, questioning and conversational. Yet every tone of voice in communication is made up of four different aspects that come together to help you get your point across.
What is tone in communication skills? ›The tone of voice in communication is defined as 'the way a person speaks to someone'. It is how you use your voice to get your point across. If you don't do it right, there is a risk of your point getting lost or misinterpreted.
What is tone of voice in online communication? ›What is tone of voice? The tone of voice meaning is how a business communicates with its target audience. For example, you may want to communicate in a formal or informal way, or you may want to come across as friendly, engaging, or funny.
What are 2 commonly used indicators? ›Examples: Litmus:- It shows red colour in acidic solution and blue colour in basic solution. Methyl orange:- It shows red colour in acidic solution and yellow colour in basic solution. Phenolphthalein:-It is colourless in acidic solution and pink colour in basic solution.
What is an indicator answer? ›
An indicator is a chemical compound that changes its colour in presence of an acid or base. Indicators are generally derived from plant pigments and are mildly acidic or basic in nature.
What are most common indicators? ›The most commonly used indicator in the laboratory is universal indicator. A universal indicator is a pH indicator which shows a pH value ranging from 1 to 14 to indicate the acidity or alkalinity of any solution.
What are 10 examples of tone? ›- Cheerful.
- Dry.
- Assertive.
- Lighthearted.
- Regretful.
- Humorous.
- Pessimistic.
- Nostalgic.
- Word Length. If you want all readers to understand you clearly, it's best to use short words. ...
- Sentence Length. Shorter sentences give a concise style, while longer ones are more rambling. ...
- Tempo. ...
- Pronouns. ...
- Conciseness. ...
- Clarity. ...
- Jargon and Obscure Words. ...
- Buzzwords and Clichés.
- Focused on answering a specific evaluation question;
- Correlated to what you want to measure;
- Based on valid scientific research and literature;
- Relevant at various scales (site, feature, landscape);
- Responsive to forest and range practices in a predictable way;
According to this typology, there are four types of indicators: input, output, outcome and impact.
What is the best way to identify tone? ›directly, but through word choices. you understand the tone of a speaker's voice—happy, sad, angry, etc. sentences, and author's descriptions to find emotion and tone. to feel the author's attitude and identify the tone.
What can affect tone in writing? ›The audience can affect the mood and tone of the writing because different audiences have different expectations. Tone refers to the author's attitude—how they feel about their subject and their readers. It expresses something of the author's persona, the aspects of their personality they wish to show to their readers.
Why should you be careful of your tone when writing? ›A writer's tone is very important, as it conveys a particular message from you as the writer and likewise affects the reader in a particular way. Consequently, it can also affect how the reader receives the message you are communicating.
How many types of tones are there? ›Generally, there are three categories of tones in writing: positive, negative, and neutral. Within these categories are varying intensities of emotion that writers may want to evoke.
How tone can change meaning? ›
Intonation – How stressing the words can change the meaning of what you say. Intonation is the way we use pitch when we speak. Intonation helps convey meaning, emotion, and mood beyond words. Changing the intonation of a sentence, while using the same exact words, can completely change its meaning.
Is tone positive or negative? ›In general, tones can be positive, negative, or neutral. For example, positive tones create feelings of happiness and excitement, while negative tones may elicit feelings of sadness or despondency.
How much does tone of voice affect communication? ›Albert Mehrabian. His studies concluded that communication is 7% verbal and 93% non-verbal. He then broke down the non-verbal components as follows: 55% is from facial expressions, gestures, and postures, while 38% is from tone of voice.
Why is tone quality important? ›Simply put having a good tone means that your sound is pleasant to listen to. Playing in tone means that you're using an appropriate tone for the style you're playing. Having a good tone is one of the most important aspects of music. Who wants to listen to a performance if it's not pleasant to listen to?
How many sound tones are there? ›The twelve-tone system is not a global standard; many non-Western cultures use different tonal systems. However, some intervals – namely the octave – are present in all musical cultures.
How do you answer a tone question? ›When answering a question on tone, you need to be able to show how it has been achieved and this will involve looking at the word choice, the structure and type of sentence(s) used, as well as any imagery.
What are the three elements of tone? ›Tone has three elements that should be considered. Number one, the purpose of the message, and number two, the audience of the message, and number three, the words used to convey the tone.
What are the 4 properties of tone? ›A musical tone is characterized by its duration, pitch, intensity (or loudness), and timbre (or quality).
Do indicators really work in trading? ›Using trading indicators is part of any technical trader's strategy. Paired with the right risk management tools, it could help you gain more insight into price trends.
Do professionals use indicators? ›Professional traders who rely on technical analysis use indicators. Professional traders who do not rely on technical patterns tend to keep the use of indicators to a minimum, if at all. Trading indicators analyze the statistical trends of price movements and trading volume to predict market trends.
Do indicator strategies work? ›
Indicators tell you immediately what is going on
Indicators are great tools if a trader understands their true purpose. Of course, you can just look at price action and get an idea for momentum or volatility, but indicators take out the guesswork and make information processing much faster and easier.
Along with nonverbal cues like body language and eye contact, tone of voice is an essential element of communication that often “speaks” more powerfully than your actual words ever could. It can help you build rapport, make connections, influence others and get what you want in relationships, your career and your life.
Which trading indicator has the highest accuracy? ›- Moving Average Line.
- Moving Average Convergence Divergence (MACD)
- Relative Strength Index (RSI)
- On-Balance-Volume (OBV)
MACD - Moving Average Convergence/Divergence
Several indicators in the stock market exist, and the Moving-Average Convergence/Divergence line or MACD is probably the most widely used technical indicator. Along with trends, it also signals the momentum of a stock.
- On-balance volume (OBV)
- Accumulation/distribution line.
- Average directional index.
- Aroon oscillator.
- Moving average convergence divergence (MACD)
- Relative strength index (RSI)
- Stochastic oscillator.
- Moving average (MA)
- Exponential moving average (EMA)
- Stochastic oscillator.
- Moving average convergence divergence (MACD)
- Bollinger bands.
- Relative strength index (RSI)
- Fibonacci retracement.
- Ichimoku cloud.
The most commonly used indicator in the laboratory is universal indicator. A universal indicator is a pH indicator which shows a pH value ranging from 1 to 14 to indicate the acidity or alkalinity of any solution.
Why indicators don t work? ›You may be dealing with bad bulbs, a bad flasher relay, a faulty turn signal switch, or a bad wire or connector between the flasher unit and the turn signal switch. First, check the bulbs to see if they are still in good shape: No darkened areas or damaged filaments.
Do indicators always work? ›Leading Indicators fail more than lagging indicators. Technical indicators fail because nothing in trading is 100%. Technical analysis and technical indicators do work once you take responsibility for your trading decisions.
What factors affect tone? ›...
- Word choice. ...
- Active v passive. ...
- Overall readability. ...
- Use of pronouns. ...
- Use of contractions. ...
- Adherence (or not) to the “rules” of grammar.
How can I control my tone when talking? ›
- humming.
- lip buzzing.
- tongue trills.
- loosening your jaw by opening your mouth wide, then gently closing it.
- yawning.
- deep breathing.
- gently massaging your throat to loosen tense muscles.