65 to 85 percent of communication between humans is non-verbal. What we get here is 35 to 15 percent of what is left over. We are seeing, at the most, a small fraction of the person- even if they are not lying to us, or to themselves- it is still only this silver of a person.
How that sliver of a person reads, and interprets the written words here, is going to determine their perception of the writers here. We are public writers, doing a graffitti dance on an electronic wall. There are no voices, there are no faces, only letters, grouped into words, grouped into sentences, and so on. Our experience is primarily with words, imo, and with our interpretation of words. It isn't really an experience with other people. It is an experience in our own imaginations. Unless we really make an effort to make someone real (imo). People may seem real to us, but I suspect 90% of what we think those other people are is in our imagination. Having met several people on SI I can tell you that if they were even 10% the way I imagined them that was unusual. |
