#tone indicators
tone indicators besides /s are not as helpful to autistic people as you think they are
saw a tweet that was like, “this is top tier /hj” and like. first of all, i had to have another person explain to me what it was. second of all, what am i supposed to do with that information? what is half joking? what part of this is a joke and what is sincere? and maybe you think that’s being pedantic or literal, but i have news for you - i am autistic! i am nothing BUT pedantic and literal. these tone indicators are just like, a roadblock for my cognitive abilities. they literally slow me down; trip me up; make me question if i’m understanding things correctly. in trying to make communication “simpler”, they’re making it a lot harder for me.
this was going to be a tag rant on our main but then we stumbled on something actually… important?
1 (the start of our tag rant): some tone indicators, to many people, do the opposite of what they’re supposed to. “thanks /gen” does NOT make us feel like you’re being genuine it makes us wonder why the fuck we shouldn’t just assume you’re being genuine when you say thanks. it always feels passive-aggressive to us when people use it. like “thanks. yes i mean it, for real i promise, why wouldn’t i mean it.” and nobody asked.
2 (the part we stumbled on): apparently people have a MASSIVE misunderstanding what not being able to read tone is. obviously it’ll be different for other people, but for us, not being able to tell what the tone is/not being able to differentiate is only a tiny part of the problem. the main problem is that we have no fucking clue what tone MEANS. we can’t even explain it because we are completely clueless on what tone actually means. telling us your tone tells us nothing.
3. with that last bit, the way that some people encourage people to use tone indicators falls under the same category. we don’t know what tone means, so how do we know how to translate what we mean into a tone indicator?
There’s a popular post going around that’s like “well tone indicators are helpful for people for anxiety because some people need stuff like “ /nm (not mad)” or “ /nbh (nobody here)” and I absolutely get it because I have an anxiety disorder but like. You can very much add that on the text of a message itself and it will be way more clear and accessible than expecting them to memorize this whole new fabricated code.
Which one do you think will be clearer, faster to understand, and more direct to the point:
“oh my god someone is pissing me off /nbh”
“oh my god someone (not from this server, don’t worry) is pissing me off”
or
“have you done the dishes? /nm
“have you done the dishes? don’t worry, im not mad, just wondering”
You can be mindful of someone else’s needs and talk to them in a way that is respectful and understanding of those needs. The key is communication. Expecting people to memorize a lot of abbreviations is like the contrary of accessible.
Hello! It’s another autism comic, go below for an english translation!
Dia 7 falando de sarcasmo e não entender as intenções das pessoas, como faz falta indicadores de tom de voz online :’D transcrição do texto abaixo!
PT-BR
(imagem 1)
“Oi bem vindes ao dia 7 eu sou autista e muito ruim com sarcasmo”
“Em geral eu costumo sempre assumir que as pessoas tão sendo honestas comigo e, a não ser que seja algo absurdo, maior parte das vezes eu vou acreditar ou só ficar confuse com a informação”
(imagem 2)
“ "A gente te ama!” “Confia!” “Eu não vou te machucar de verdade” “Okay…" “ "Yes, você é a MELHOR!” “
“Basicamente, é extremamente fácil mentir pra mim e me manipular. Eu demorei muito pra me tocar que sofria bullying quando era criança e na real até hoje eu tenho dificuldade pra saber se tão sendo rudes comigo ou não!“
“ “Ah…você…” “oxe” “É só brincadeira!” “Foi mal, esse jogo é para adultos” “Mas eu tenho a mesma idade que vo-” “Xau!” “Uh, ok até amanhã" “
(imagem 3)
“Uma vez 1 cara da faculdade aproveito que uma treta de zap era vagamente relacionada a mim pra uh, reclamar da minha existência”
(cortado) "Você vai ser criticada por ser lésbica. Você não pode sentar e chorar toda vez”
“É dark humor galera”
“Vc não está em um ambiente agradável, se resguarde se não quiser levar ataque”
“Eu sei”
“Vc força amizade na sala já não traz isso pro grupo”
“meu deus me desculpa eu não tenho noção”
“;) rlx”
“A gente nem se conhece”
“Set fire in the rain”
“kkk”
“Só não atrapalha a aula e todos vão te amar”
“gente 6 tão bem?”
(cortado)“PARA DE SER HIPOCRITA QUE TODO MUNDO GOSTA DE UMA BAIXARIA”
“ Doeu ter minhas inseguranças acertadas na mosca! Eu aprecio muito quem tem paciência comigo, que me explica as coisas sem ser vago. Se não eu não entendo as coisa! Eu preciso dessa comunicação clara e saudável. Aliás falando de zap, é ainda mais difícil fazer isso ONLINE!”
(imagem 4)
“Em inglês até tem marcadores de tom de voz e as vezes em português aviso de ironia ou piada. Mas eu acho que precisa normaliza mais! Ajuda muito! E quem sabe a gente ter uma lista de marcadores de tom em português também? Tipo assim? Tem nada de errado com demorar pra sacar as coisas e precisar de ajuda é okay! Achar que é burrice é capacitista. Lembre-se disso! xoxoxo”
(a lista abaixo ta junto da tradução em inglês pra gringue)
/vdd - verdadeiro e/ou genuino (ou /gen) ENG: true, genuine
/i - ironia ENG: irony
/sr - sério ENG: serious
/bq - brincando ENG: joking
/mbq - meio brincando ENG: half-joking
/s - sarcasmo ENG: sarcasm
/pr - provocação ENG: teasing
/r - romantico ENG: romantic
/pl - platonico ENG: platonic
/pos - positivo ENG: positive
/neg - negativo ENG: negative
/rlx - relaxado e/ou despreocupado e/ou não bravo ENG: relaxed, unconcerned, not mad
/f - falso e/ou mentira ENG: false, lying
/m - meme e/ou copypasta (ou /c)
cb - clickbait
ENG
(image 1)
“Hi welcome to day 7 I am autistic and very bad with sarcasm”
“In general I tend to assume that people are being honest with me and, unless it’s something absurd, most of the time I’ll believe it or just be confused with the information.”
(image 2)
“ “We love you!” “Trust me!” “I won’t hurt you for real” “Okay…” “Yes, you’re the BEST!””
“Basically, lying to me and manipulating me is extremely easy. I took a very long time to get that I was being bullied as a child and really up to this day I have a hard time telling if people are being rude to me.”
“ “Oh…you…” “Dafuq” “It’s just a joke!” “Sorry, this game is for adults” “But I’m the same age as y-” “Bye!” “Uh, okay. Seeya tomorrow.”
(image 3)
“One time this guy from college used the fact the whatsapp discourse was vaguely related to me to uh, complain about my existence”
(cut off)” “You will be criticized for being a lesbian. You can’t sit and cry every time” “It’s dark humor guys” U’re not in a pleasant space, keep to yourself if u don’t want to be attacked” “I know” “U already force friendships with people in class don’t bring that to the group”
““oh my god im sorry i cant tell” “;) dw” “we don’t even know each other” “Set fire in the rain” “lol” “Just don’t disrupt class and everyone will love you” “yall r good?” (cut off) “STOP BEING A HYPOCRITE EVERYONE HERE LOVES DRAMA”
“Having my insecurities attacked spot on hurt! I appreciate a lot those who are patient with me, that explain stuff to me without being vague. Otherwise I won’t get stuff! I need healthy and clear communication, BY THE WAY on the subject of Whatsapp it’s much harder to do that ONLINE!”
(image 4)
“In english we have voice tone “indicators” and some times in portuguese warnings for irony or jokes. But I think it should be more normalized! It helps a lot! And maybe have a list of tone indicators in portuguese too? Like so? There’s nothing wrong with taking a while to get things and needing help is okay! Finding that a sign of not being smart is ableist. Remember that! xoxoxo”
(translation for the list above next to the transcript)
Post link
this has 100% became a blog for me to ask questions.
i have started using tone indicators ever since my girlfriend introduced them to me to help make my texts clearer, in tone obviously. /gen
though, i do this thing, especially in text, where i ‘overreact’ or make a situation bigger than it really is, purposefully.
fake scenario example:
i hit my funny bone
what i ended up saying to my gf:
“i need to get my arm amputated”
do i just use /s (sarcasm) or is there an indicator for “overreact”
reminder that just because tone indicators dont work for some people, doesnt mean they dont work for others. if they dont work for you, thats fine, but dont ask people to stop using them for everyone else as well. tone indicators are really helpful for me, as an autistic person, and im getting pretty sick of posts saying to get rid of them because they dont work for some people.
accommodations are not one-size-fits-all
There’s a popular post going around that’s like “well tone indicators are helpful for people for anxiety because some people need stuff like “ /nm (not mad)” or “ /nbh (nobody here)” and I absolutely get it because I have an anxiety disorder but like. You can very much add that on the text of a message itself and it will be way more clear and accessible than expecting them to memorize this whole new fabricated code.
Which one do you think will be clearer, faster to understand, and more direct to the point:
“oh my god someone is pissing me off /nbh”
“oh my god someone (not from this server, don’t worry) is pissing me off”
or
“have you done the dishes? /nm
“have you done the dishes? don’t worry, im not mad, just wondering”
You can be mindful of someone else’s needs and talk to them in a way that is respectful and understanding of those needs. The key is communication. Expecting people to memorize a lot of abbreviations is like the contrary of accessible.
I personally don’t like them because they’re at the end of a sentence - I’ll have already read “did you do the dishes?” in an interrogative tone, but only putting the tone indicator at the end means I’m already annoyed in response by the time I get to it.
These two issues are why I prefer ye olde tone indicators from the late 90s/early 00s. If you enclose your sarcastic comment with fake HTML tags such as <sarcasm>This is a sarcastic comment.</sarcasm>, then your readers already know the tone of voice before they’ve read the statement.
I’m really bad with the modern Twitter /nbd tone indicators at the end of a sentence, especially anything more complicated than joking or sarcasm. Half the time I simply don’t see them, and the rest of the time I can’t remember what they mean.
