Guess what? I just got my very first cell phone, and I was super excited! I couldn’t wait to text my friends, so I sent a message to Alexa, David, and Evan. I typed, “Hey you,” and hit send.
Here’s what I sent:
I waited for them to reply, but I didn’t hear back. So, I decided to send another message: “What’s happening?”
Again, I sent:
Still, there was no response. I was puzzled, so I sent one more text: “Nevermind.”
Once more, I texted:
Finally, I got replies from all three of them, but they weren’t what I expected. Here’s what they said:
Uh-oh! I realized that my friends were upset. They misunderstood my texts. I thought I was being friendly, but they thought I was mad at them. This taught me something really important: when you send messages, people can’t see your face or hear your voice. They only see the words you type, so they might misunderstand your tone.
The big lesson here is to be careful with what you write and how you write it. Make sure your words are clear and friendly, so your friends know exactly what you mean. This way, you can avoid any confusion and keep your friendships strong!
Emoji Expression: Try using emojis to express your feelings in a message. Write a short message to a friend and add emojis to show if you’re happy, excited, or surprised. Share it with a classmate and see if they can guess how you feel just by looking at the emojis!
Role Play: Pair up with a friend and take turns sending each other pretend text messages. One person will write a message, and the other will guess the tone or emotion behind it. Discuss how the message could be changed to make the tone clearer.
Observation Journal: For one day, pay attention to how people communicate around you. Listen to conversations and notice how tone and facial expressions help convey messages. Write down your observations and think about how these cues are missing in text messages. How can you make sure your text messages are understood correctly?
I got my first cell phone the other day. I was so excited that I decided to text my friends. I sent my first message to Alexa, David, and Evan. I typed, “Hey you,” and pressed send.
Alexa: “Hey you.”
David: “Hey you.”
Evan: “Hey you.”
I didn’t hear back from them, so I sent another text: “What’s happening?”
Alexa: “What’s happening?”
David: “What’s happening?”
Evan: “What’s happening?”
Still, no response. I wasn’t sure what was going on, so I sent them one more text. I wrote, “Nevermind.”
Alexa: “Nevermind.”
David: “Nevermind.”
Evan: “Nevermind.”
Finally, I received not one, but three texts back. Alexa wrote:
Alexa: “Whatever.”
David wrote:
David: “Whatever.”
Evan wrote:
Evan: “Whatever.”
I realized from the tone and the punctuation that my friends were upset. They had misunderstood my texts. I thought I was being friendly, but my friends thought I was mad at them. I learned an important lesson: when you type messages to others, they can’t see your face or hear your voice. All they can see are words, so they might take the tone of your message the wrong way.
The lesson is to be careful with what you write and how you write it.
