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People often say it is hard to convey emotions through text (phone text) and it is best to communicate serious matters face to face.

Can I get some examples where a piece of text can have completely different connotations depending on how the reader reads it?

And what can we do to ensure we get the right message across?

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    Sorry, but this is way too broad.
    – Cascabel_StandWithUkraine_
    Commented Sep 6, 2019 at 20:48
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    Anything can be said sarcastically.
    – Laurel ♦
    Commented Sep 6, 2019 at 20:51
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    Because voice literally has more dimensions than text. Text is linear. It has a finite and small inventory of meta-characters. Voice has tone, volume, cadence, range, non-lexical verbalizations, infinite restartability, and in person you then have facial expressions and body language, which themselves are hyperdimensional. In addition voice and F2F give all these tools to the other person as additional information for you to react to. Plus humans developed in a perfectly text-free environment, and lived in it for most of history: we’re designed to convey & understand info better this way.
    – Dan Bron
    Commented Sep 6, 2019 at 22:36
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    You want an example of a piece of text that can have an enormous range of connotations depending on how the reader reads it? “Hello.” There are many tools in text we can use to improve communication, but ultimately they all pale to emptiness when compared to voice and face-to-face.
    – Dan Bron
    Commented Sep 6, 2019 at 22:40
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    Because there isn't a universally accepted set of rules on how to interpret nuances in text composition. A random example, quite a lot of people don't use dots at the end of the sentence while typing in informal conversations, either to speed up the dialogue or to economize characters (not to pay double for a text message, for example), so when they start using dots, many people see that as an example that they are offended or frustrated or something else. I have no idea why, but it's stereotypical where I live - if you use a dot to end an online message, you might be angry at the other person
    – PavelAndré
    Commented Sep 7, 2019 at 9:03

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Because text literally has no tone. When you read it, you're left to determine what tone was used by using context of what's written around it(if anything).

Perfect example is in the movie 'The Martian' when they tell Matt Damon about the plan to get him off the planet using a tarp to cover the top of the capsule, while at the same time becoming 'the fastest man in space' or however they phrased it.

It shows the people trying to gauge his response when he replies with 'Are you f'ing kidding me?' and it shows them trying to decide whether he said it as if he were excitingly surprised or whether it was said with grudging incredulity. Then it shows the woman guessing that he meant it the first way, though she has no idea which he actually meant.

Perfectly shows this, which plays out every day, all across the world. And it still comes back to my first sentence. It's hard to convey tone of speech because there is no tone to convey. One must determine the tone using what's written around it.

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