Every now and then, I'll read an article in a magazine about how relationships are ruined by misinterpreted text messages or emails - Friend A writes, "wanna come to my bbq?" Friend B responds, "uh... dunno, busy" and Friend A thinks Friend B meant to be snide and two years later, they see each other from across a crowded room and hug and make up and hate themselves for hating each other. The point is that without certain nonverbal social cues, messages get transformed. As someone who regularly misinterprets friendly emails as deeply hostile, I understand that my words don't always convey what I mean, and so writing emails is extremely stressful for me. I agonize over emails, worrying that I sounded sarcastic or bitchy. It's not a neurosis - I often sound sarcastic or bitchy, in person and in emails, and that's why I like to have my friend Ben proofread all my emails before I send them.
Ben was born with a gift for writing emails. Periodically throughout the day, I send him drafts of emails I'm planning to send and when his bosses aren't making him write their emails, he helps with mine. Sometimes he straight-up writes them for me, down to the subject lines. Maybe someday he'll write a technology etiquette book or something. I don't know. I do know that soon, I'm going to have to start writing my own emails, because Ben is moving to The Hague, and I'm probably going to end up offending a lot of people.
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