bridgeburner
threadkiller
- Joined
- Dec 5, 2001
- Posts
- 2,712
A,
Not everyone has this skill though --- and it may be innate talent as much as skill. Not everyone gets the hang of online conversation and even among those who do, some people are just better at it than others. Whether that's because they're truly more perceptive or because they're less interested in fooling themselves is a tough call.
Also, most people are not radically different face to face than they are online ----- I don't mean just some casual pick-up experience but people with whom one regularly converses and interracts online. BUT occasionally they are, or they are enough different or you've read them just wrong enough that meeting face to face is a major disappointment that you would have recognized immediately or shortly thereafter had you first encountered the peson in the flesh.
I've been doing the online thing for a long time now --- about 8 years. I'm pretty damn good at reading people but I've been burned before and surprised and I'm sure it will probably happen again in future because you really just can't know some things until you meet face to face.
But you can learn things on the phone. ;->
-B
AngelicAssassin said:In verbal comms, not face to face, you can "hear" body language ...Face to face communications ... a person will open their book for your perusal if you simply wish to observe.
- fidgeting, whether from nerves or boredom
- the breathing pattern, how it changes from the first hello through however else you engage an individual in conversation
- the change in voice when someone drops their head
- and if you're really observant ... you know why they're fidgeting, if they are, in the first place.
Not everyone has this skill though --- and it may be innate talent as much as skill. Not everyone gets the hang of online conversation and even among those who do, some people are just better at it than others. Whether that's because they're truly more perceptive or because they're less interested in fooling themselves is a tough call.
Also, most people are not radically different face to face than they are online ----- I don't mean just some casual pick-up experience but people with whom one regularly converses and interracts online. BUT occasionally they are, or they are enough different or you've read them just wrong enough that meeting face to face is a major disappointment that you would have recognized immediately or shortly thereafter had you first encountered the peson in the flesh.
I've been doing the online thing for a long time now --- about 8 years. I'm pretty damn good at reading people but I've been burned before and surprised and I'm sure it will probably happen again in future because you really just can't know some things until you meet face to face.
But you can learn things on the phone. ;->
-B