Read on Twitter
Broadly speaking, a little over 90% of human communication is done non-verbally. The words we use convey virtually no information whatsoever about what we're communicating. It's an important thing to remember when you talk on a text-based medium, like the internet.
To you, your joke, sarcastic comment, insightful tidbit, sounds exactly as you intend, because you're still working with 100% of what you're trying to convey, as well as having the context, but the person on the other end can only see 10% of what you're communicating.
It can be made easier with things like emojis and text formatting, but if you don't include them then there's no contextual clues as to the intent of what you're saying.
Analysis of communication requires observation of 3 things
context - the situation and environment
clusters - groupings of expressions
congruence - that they all fit together
context - the situation and environment
clusters - groupings of expressions
congruence - that they all fit together
Text based mediums lack context and you only have 1 datum to work with, so clusters and congruence is virtually impossible to observe. You can't ever properly analyse what someone is saying if they're only using words.
For most people, analysis of communication is done on a subconscious level, people don't typically look for leaking facial expressions and shifts in tone. You might notice it, but you analyse it subconsciously. That can't be done on a text-based medium, like the internet.
My point is, if you tell a joke on this site that's satirical or sarcastic and give ZERO indication that you're being satircal through the use of emojis or text formatting, it's not other peoples' fault that they don't understand your joke and think you're serious.
This thread inspired by the person I just saw pissed off because everyone thought they were being serious when they said self-isolation is revealing who's really introverted and who is pretending to be because it makes them sound cool.
