The communication thing.

[boxofdelights]

[In which I am talking to my husband about my reaction to the latest communication from the housepainter.]

Me: "Fine! Here's your money! And keep an eye out for my essay, 'How to turn a disappointed customer into a customer who is VIBRATING WITH RAGE, in five easy emails, each with its own special fauxpology!'"

Hugh: Is that what you wrote back?

Me: ...No. I'm not going to waste a line like that on him. He wouldn't enjoy it.


I should write that essay for you, dear readers, because you would enjoy it, but it'll have to wait until I can look back on it and laugh, because with me, VIBRATING WITH RAGE is more like vomiting with rage, and I would prefer not to.


Earlier, I told Hugh, "The human communication thing. I suck at it. I should stop."
He said, "You can't stop. Well, there's one way you could stop."
I said, "OKAY FINE. I should MINIMIZE my exposure to it."

Not seriously. Except for the fact that I suck at it.


Hugh reads my public LJ posts, and sometimes reads the comments. He is impressed by my kind and helpful friendslist. When I write about a problem and get reams of kind and helpful advice, he is incredulous. "Why don't you respond to them?" he asks. I say, "...."

It's the communication thing. I have some deficiencies there. After I write, I am spent. There is a significant refractory period before I can compose anything new.

Terrible metaphor.


Are you offended, disappointed, or hurt when I don't respond to your comments? Would it help at all if I said something perfunctory like 'Thank you'? Can you suggest anything that would help?


I do appreciate you. I do wish to become better at expressing it.

Comments

[beaq.livejournal.com]

I am in fact slightly disturbed when someone responds back to every comment people make, and will often avoid commenting in those threads.

If I was offended by silence, I would be the most large hypocrite of them all. Once in a while, if I've been particularly whiny or otherwise emotionally obtrusive, and people have been supportive, and I'm more distant from the issue, I'll go back and thank people. Especially if one or two people made a particular effort. Otherwise, a nod of acknowledgment can be assumed.

I feel like my LJ friendships are peripheral to my personal relationships to those people. The value of LJ interactions is something like 1/20th that of in-person interactions. Probably less.

[ljgeoff.livejournal.com]

I am in fact slightly disturbed when someone responds back to every comment people make, and will often avoid commenting in those threads.

Exactly this. I feel a little awkward when someone replies to every single comment. Though sometimes I reply to posts simply because I get very few replies, and am feeling communication-deficient.