Yesterday I found someone who says “question mark” after every question and has apparently forgotten how to inflect their voice to express tone. It was horrifying, but I realized I’m not that different. I immediately think “cringe” or “based” at many things. Even when I’m not terminally online everything I hear gets put on a meme template by my brain. I’m having trouble expressing tone/emotion in writing without visual indicators like emojis or “/s.” I know I’m not alone, what do we do?
Read a book. Talk to people about the books you're reading, and ask them about the books they're reading.
I genuinely believe that people don't read cuz they don't know people who read. Tell people you read, how you read, what you read and why that is awesome.
I thought that Capital was impossible until I met a guy who had read all 3 volumes multiple times, and capital like 6 times. He was younger than me and also hadnt gone to college.
Yesterday I found someone who says “question mark” after every question and has apparently forgotten how to inflect their voice to express tone.
Please tell me this isn't real. There is no way someone can suffer from so much internet brainrot.
Sadly it’s true. I’ve heard others do it, but they correct themselves unlike this person.
I pray for this to be an anglo custom that will never reach our shores. How do you even read a question and not inflict your voice inside your head? How do you even develop the custom of thinking and then saying out loud "question mark" instead of doing it the proper way?
It’s one thing to think online stuff, but verbally speaking the word “question mark”, with no tone or inflection, is a whole different level
Of course all of us have at least once said something like "lol" or "lmao" out loud but this is far beyond what it takes for one to be told to touch grass.
Engage in some low-brow, offline activies like going to a trivia night
Honestly I don't see the problem with talking like this.
I'm not going to sit here and pretend that not being able to inflect their voice to express tone isn't a bad thing but tbh I can't imagine that is/was caused by internet usage. If I'm wrong, then that's fucked and it must be a severe, severe case.
But regarding the based and cringe thing, there's nothing wrong with using that terminology, especially if it's around people similar to you. Those words were a pretty common thing to hear among my friend group for a while and I still drop them every once in a while regardless of where I am.
Expressing tone through text is notoriously difficult, that's literally why those indicators were developed. Nothing wrong with using them.
Language, just like society and the economy and everything else, develops and changes with the times and conditions. I won't say there aren't serious risks and problems with skibidi toilet for 7 hours a day brainrot or constant stimulation from the moment you pop out of the womb, but dumbass lingo has always been around, specifically among youth. So pretending that it's a crisis to be using it is just a little silly to me. Not to shit on your post or anything I just mean like, I don't think you need to worry about this as much as it seems you are. The person you're talking about might though.
It's also not like you'll be stuck in one form of communication; at least I'm not. I often switch from brainrot, to how I'm typing normally now, to speaking with serious intellectual effort.
TLDR; don't be afraid of language and it's development, it's always going to seem stupid or unserious at first but it's literally just a more complex form of communication being made as time passes.
I sometimes say "question mark" out loud but then again, I have robo-droid-person autism. For writing, I look at the writings, like diary entries or letters, of the past. For sure, as another person has mentioned, books help, and I'd like to add that directly borrowing/learning from person-to-person texts can give you a good presentation of expression just through text. Also, it might be of help to look at words by themselves, by which I mean that you think of a word and look up a synonym with a connotation suiting the emotion you wanna give your writing. For example, "happy" and "jolly" mean the same but express it differently
Looking at old letters sounds like a good idea. I do love synonyms and could always use more.
I’m having trouble expressing tone/emotion in writing without visual indicators like emojis or “/s.”
Neurotypical people problems \s
Do you watch movies or stuff like that frequently? It sounds like you're engaging way more with text or images than audio input from other people.
I just mean it sounds stupid in legit writing beyond online discussion. I don’t like TV and avoid it most of the time. I do listen to a lot of podcasts and music though, in addition to talking along with text based stuff.
Not sure about essays and other non-narrarive writings, but lots of fiction books have an equivalent for sarcasm markers.
They'll write something like this, since lots of sarcasm is based on tone and hard-to-tell context.
"This is a very nice meal", Harry Jackson sneered.
If they're feeling very charitable, or if it's really not clear, they'll even make it even more obvious.
"Do you fancy me, Potter?", asked Malfoy sarcastically.
In Portuguese some folks even say something like "aqueles caras" ("[said] those guys") after a sarcastic sentence to make it clear they're being sarcastic.
Sarcasm markers are way more ubiquitous than they seem. I don't think you should worry too much about adopting some internet lingo like saying "cringe", because language evolved.
But Sarcasm is weird. Maybe you could try to consciously pick up on how writers, actors and even family and acquaintances you like express it outside of forums in various ways.
That’s a good point about fiction. I just find it weird how the internet makes weird slang and memes ubiquitous.
Yesterday I found someone who says “question mark” after every question […]
When I hear someone say "question mark", it's usually in a condescending or smug way of talking. Usually accompanied with an over the top tone. It's annoying and down right insulting, but I've rarely found it said that way so that's fortunate.
[…] and has apparently forgotten how to inflect their voice to express tone. It was horrifying,
But this? This better be some edge case because that is down right terrifying. Still I don't know enough about that person to know whether the absolutely monotone voice is a symptom of being terminally online or something else entirely. I hope for the latter, because just the thought of such an extreme case is making me doubtful, skeptical and well... terrified just for thinking it possibly being true.
I immediately think “cringe” or “based” at many things.
Can't relate directly, but I do have thoughts in my head about a someone I'm talking to. Like thinking the person might be an utter idiot, someone well intentioned and salvageable, or someone who knows what they are talking about. But I don't shorthand it to "based" or "cringe". As long as those words stay in your head, I don't think they are wrong to have there. Just don't use them in public unless you want someone to wince.
[...] everything I hear gets put on a meme template by my brain
Maybe that's not so bad. As long as you don't try and articulate yourself purely in memes or try to communicate your thoughts in them, then they could help you with simplifying thoughts. Buuut, they might also influence how you think about the other person subconsciously and be detrimental when talking about more complicated stuff. But I don't know, I'm just spouting bullshit of the top of my head since I don't do this and don't know how it could influence thinking.
I’m having trouble expressing tone/emotion in writing without visual indicators like emojis or “/s.”
This is a non issue, text is a very sterile form of conversation as it does not convey any sort of emotion you want to convey through it by itself. That's why emoji exist and why something like "/s" was invented, back in my day™ pEoPlE uSeD tO wRiTe LiKe tHiS to convey mockery or sarcasm.
Here you go, a video by Jan Misali about "/hj": "the /hj tone indicator is worse than useless"
To be clear, I don’t mean it all in engaging with others. I’ve never heard the word used in an insulting way, just in the way people ask Siri to send messages with. It is scary. I do deconstruct what people say and think of them as fools sometimes, but usually I just mean based or cringe as in “I like or don’t like that thing/aspect.”
I don’t think the meme thing is very helpful, considering there are better ways I can and do think, and whatever I come up with isn’t that funny.
I think there is a bit of a limit on short form text, but people seem to have been able to express emotion better in the past idk. Also, that video keeps showing up in my recommended.
I found a YouTube link in your comment. Here are links to the same video on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
If you're a native English speaker, odds are that you didn't forget how to express subtleties like sarcarsm in writing, it's just that a lot of people on the internet are non-native English and a huge proportion of native speakers with internet access are only functionally literate (obv. in most cases not by choice). /s doesn't exist because you can't write sarcasm, it exists as a courtesy to people who can't read it.
As for the rest of it, I don't know. It's wierd that someone could forget how to inflect their voice when people learn to do it by watching TV. There's a whole swathe of English learners who learned from Peppa Pig that's triggered a surge in people speaking with a Received Pronunciation accent, along with the intonation style along with the show's child-like over-emphasized intonation. Brains are weird, but plastic enough that you can relearn stuff with persistence.
Read paper books, with all electronics off, the best place to start is Marks, Engels and Lenin. Personally, Engels and Lenin are most fun to read for me -- Marks is difficult. Talk a lot with people in real life -- may be tricky, so one need to find some club or organization.
Saying "question mark" out loud is actually a really good habit if you're trying to get into Mandarin
It's more like ending a sentence with "Yeah?" or "Right?", Yeah?
Ah, so quite a punchy way of asking a question? I never got too far with my Mandarin, so didn't learn many subtlties.
No, as in it doesn't require you to rearrange the structure of the sentence you're turning into a question. "Is it ma" vs "It is ma"
Most direct translations do come off as punchy though, like instead of "What do you do for work?" you'd use "You do what for work?"
Not to that extent, but similar here, I also use based all the time, but not only that, shitposting subs have completely poisoned my brain and now I use ''is he/she stupid?'' ''is there a lore reason'' ''brain injury?'' etc all the time irl, complete brainrot.
Idk it's hard.
It's almost impossible to convey tone well through text. Just because you read a tone into something doesn't mean you actually know what the author intended or what they actually felt. This is why explicit markers like emoji, tone indicators, and so on were invented. They actually improve communication when used correctly. I can't ever see why that would be a bad thing especially in a medium like text. Funnily enough tone indicators are an accomodation for neurodivergent people that ended up being helpful for neurotypical people. It actually seems to be a problem that societal norms have, they get written by people with too many subtleties that even the average person struggles with, then some autistic dude comes over realizes it's stupid and it gets replaced by actually clear, good communication.
I also know people who say things like cringe and based out loud and I actually think it works for that person. They don't take stuff seriously and it goes well with that vibe. It wouldn't suit someone like me though. People used phrases meaning similar things long before the Internet was invented, it's just more global now instead of local. Slang has always existed and it's a very important part of language. To belittle that just because it came from the Internet is pretty much juvenoia at best or just plain anti-internet conservatism. So pretty cringe if you ask me 🤣.
Take 3 days 100% no phone, no exceptions except emergencies keep it off. If it's no big deal, it's no big deal. If it feels like withdrawing from opiates and is hideously uncomfortable, you have a problem.
Personally the words and tone etc aren't inherently, to me, the worst thing, emojis are a lot of fun, pictograms even, we're connecting to our ancestors 😔🙏
I actually took a month mostly off of my phone and it was great. I should get back off but I have FOMO for Lemmygrad. I’m also clearly addicted once I allow myself to use the internet at all.
