“The trouble of talking too fast is you may say
something you haven’t thought of yet.”
Ann
Landers
The other day it occurred to me that in this new age,
such ‘talking’ is often a comment left on a chat board, or to a blog post.
Oh, sure- you can delete your own blog posts, and you
can edit or delete reviews on your own site. It’s true that once ‘out there,’
the Internet Wayback Machines can find deleted material. But who would bother?
It’s a different story when it comes to certain
blogging services and the comments you leave on them. If you delete these, a
record is left of who you are, and that you deleted whatever it was. I always
find these ‘deleted by’ creepy, even though they were probably just correcting
a typo. These deletes scream- SO~AND~SO SAID SOMETHING THEY NOW REGRET AND WANT
HIDDEN. Talk about wanting less
attention…
I’ve stopped posting anyplace that will not allow me
to un-post or correct my typos in a seamless way. As I won’t post anonymously,
I don’t need that inevitable ‘from’ turned to ‘form’ haunting me forever. (From/Form
is my number one typo, present in every letter I ever typed. You’d think I have
some subliminal unfulfilled bureaucratic ambitions.)
And this doesn’t even begin to touch on unintended offensive
remarks. (The intended kind deserves a separate post.)
Because I like chiming in on others’ good blog posts,
and love when others come to mine, I will try not to talk too fast. Like Winnie
the Pooh, got to think. Think. Think.
Not a simple thing in this fast paced E-realm.
12 comments:
I try to be careful about what I say when posting, but I do like the option to edit out those typos. Even with "delete" what happens on the internet *stays* on the internet in one way or another!
No kidding, Mirka. You will not believe how many posts I delete before hitting reply or send or whatever buttons that send it into cyberspace.
Even super-secret comments must be stored *somewhere* no? Oy. I don't even want to think about them.
My big blunder from "talking" too fast is when I send an e-mail and forget to include an attachment when I've said I've attached one.
Oh yeah, queen of the Twitter typo. Especially when tired.
It's so true. We really must think twice about everything we say, or type.
I make the blunder Katie mentions ^ quite often.
Just one of the reasons I'm not on Twitter... though at least such tweets (a.k.a. 'twits';)) are ephemeral. Here- then quickly gone.
Agreed. And, also guilty of blunders. Have to remind myself to pause and breathe before pressing "post"!
I type very fast and sometimes I post without re-reading. Then I cringe at a typo or an auto-correct that changed what I meant to say. Thanks for the reminder to slow down.
I'm guilty as well, but I didn't know it shows up to the owner that something was deleted. I usually do this on facebook, if typing too quickly. Thanks for the heads up!
I feel the same way about deleted posts. That they're creepy!
This "you can never really delete anything from the internet" will be interesting when, years from now, some current college student runs for president.
I'm always fixing my typos, but hadn't thought it might look creepy. As long as I steer clear of arguing politics or religion, I should be fine. Those seems to be the topics that degenerate quickly into arguments on Facebook and blogs.
I'm always fixing bad typing and grammar too. And auto correct is not my always my friend.
I love that Ann Landers quote.
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