The Thin End

Our forests and oceans are filled with sounds.  These are not incidental, they carry meaning and significance.  If we humans stopped making such a cacophony of sound, we would better understand what these noises mean.  Hush!   We frequently wonder where people are, uncle Tom Cobblie and all.  They are there, or somewhere. We place people.  It is perhaps a part of our knowledge, a reducing of uncertainty.  We can fret about where people are and whether they are safe.  Have you seen John lately? He was very unwell.  Last I heard he is travelling somewhere.  I saw him post on social media.  This knowing or placing is a significant part of ecological integrity.   It is one reason why we make a noise, and a great deal of our language is about such knowledge.  Whales use three types of sounds to communicate: clicks, whistles and pulses.   But this is a bit like saying humans use grunts, whistles and clicks.  It belies ...

Social media is full of pitfalls, where understanding is concerned.  Face to face encounters with others involves a great deal of facial expression, hand gestures, body language. In short, emotion matters.   Our body language tells much more than the words we utter. Of course, we can use emojis in our messages -  or we can add kisses, xx, after our abrupt response, softening the impact of, say, a disagreement.   There are a hundred and one ways of saying 'sorry', but how do you say it 'as if you mean it'? See what I mean :) ?   I wasn't rude :) Do take care :) Beware of negative emojis?  Negative emojis are more likely to be poorly processed. A new study , published in the journal Computers in Human Behaviour,  now shows that men and women process emojis differently.  On the whole, it seems that women rate negative emojis to be more negative than do men  :(.  While positive emojis :) are about equally interpreted. Some...