I have had to mend my ways. It appears that people take the little blurb feature on MSN very seriously and that I do not take it seriously enough.

The same is true for the blurb feature on Gmail chat. I am talking about the little message you can put on your messenger interface that broadcasts to whomever might be reading something that you are thinking, doing, planning on doing, etc.

But I have always looked at this feature ruefully. You are, after all, using a messenger service. If there was something you really had to tell someone, you would tell them directly in a chat window. No. Others, I have noticed, like to broadcast their entire personal feelings in this little line, which I think defeats the purpose of having the messenger service.

So, are you a broadcaster or a sarcaster?

I am a sarcaster, or at least, I don't put messages up there that are meant to be taken as word-for-word truth.

Case in point:

A week before I went to Japan, I typed "JAPAN" in my Gmail chat window, broadcasting to everyone the idea that Japan was on my mind. Wrong. I was woefully misinterpreted. Suddenly, five or six messages popped up. All of them asking: "Are you in Japan? Why are you in Japan? What are you doing in Japan?" My initial expression of excitement about going to Japan was thwarted as I typed out to five or six different people that , no, I was not in Japan. Actually, I am going next week. I have a friend in Japan. I want to visit my friend and see Kyoto.

One chat friend exposed me for being a liar. She was upset that I was not specific enough. "You shouldn't say Japan if you are not in Japan. It's misleading," she said. I apologized.

I will learn to be more exact in my expression of inconsequential things.

But this is my bone to pick with the service. Who really cares what you say on that interface? It is not well-described what the service does for us. Is it a forum for airing private grievances in a broadcasted manner, as another chat friend recently revealed?

I was talking to someone on MSN Messenger, and her message changed from something tactfully sacchrine, like "ahhh puppies", to a tawdry and vehement "This is such f******* b****s***!"

Taken aback, I wrote in alarm: "What are you talking about?" I thought that I had been the offender in this case. No, it turned out that she was having an "argument" with her other friend. So, she thought she would let everyone else know.

An interface that does not allow for meaningful context? Or improper use of the language? Writers who cannot convey meaning well enough? I suggest that the blurb service on the messengers be reduced, recycled and reused in another form.

Okay, that's all for today. I just got back from Japan, so I have a dozen or so blurbs to post on my messenger service, without context, without any attempt at clarification.

I think I'll start with "cocaine".

 

rion
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