Terence EdenJun 1

It is amazing how some "clever" people completely misunderstand the world.

"I don't want to watch a video! Give me the text!"

"Urgh! I don't need my browser to summarise this document."

"Just spend a few years learning to play an instrument."

"Did you even read these 17 poorly-formatted but peer reviewed papers about your disease?"

"A voice note? Really? Just type it!"

There's a whole intellectual privilege in thinking that everyone has the same level of literacy as you do.

Show threadKris
@Edent That might be true, but the reverse is also true. Voice messages for example are easy and quick for the sender, but a serious hassel to parse and understand for the person recieving. Regardless of the level of literacy, it is quite rude to push the effort onto the recieving end to make it a bit more convenient for yourself.
Jun 1 at 8:08amWeb
Show threadTerence EdenJun 1
@kris only if you find reading easier than listening. We have to teach people to read - but listening tends to come more naturally.
Show threadKrisJun 1
@Edent That is not the only factor. The recieving end might be in a noisy environment or one where you can't make noise or don't want others to listen in on the messages. I can't count the number of times I was forced to drop what I was doing to move to a specific place to be able to listen to a voice message that ended up containing only trivial information, but with no way to know before listening to it fully.

I think in general the sending person should be the one making extra effort to accomodate the specific needs of the one recieving, everything else is just rude.
Show threadTerence EdenJun 1

@kris what about if I'm in an environment with harsh lighting, or driving, or forgot my glasses?

You have to accept that lots of people *like* listening rather than reading.

Show threadKrisJun 1
@Edent Sure that also happens, but the much bigger factor seems to be that some people like to *talk* rather than type, especially on mobile devices, and while that is understandable to a certain degree, the assymetry of effort between the sending and recieving end is less pronounced with text.
Show threadTerence EdenJun 1
@kris the asymmetry is less *for you*.
You are literally the sort of person I'm talking about.
Basically, to use a cliché, check your privilege.
Show threadKrisJun 1
@Edent That is a very loaded assumption, please don't do that 🤷 I actually often work with nearly illiterate people, but I can make an distinction between when and on whom the extra cognitive burden is placed. But I guess trying to have an nuanced discussion here is futile 😓
Show threadTerence EdenJun 1
@kris I'm sorry. Please tell me more.
Show threadKrisJun 1
@Edent Well, I can't say if that is universally true, but nearly illiterate people will often go to great lengths hiding the fact. So if you notice that you can try to keep text messages short and easy to understand or just call them.
Show threadLawChanJun 1
@Edent @kris what if I'm foreigner and bad at listening?
Show threadMatJun 1
@kris @Edent reading through this thread, it reminded me of this long running debate about whether Signal should add a feature to enable blocking of voice messages. Personally I think should be the responsibility of people to discuss with friends their preferred communication method https://community.signalusers.org/t/ability-to-block-disallow-voice-messages/27347/145
Ability to block / disallow voice messages

It’s also not exactly a popular feature request. Only 23 ❤ .

Signal Community
Show threadsunflowerinrainJun 1
@okwithmydecay @kris @Edent
Options.
Some people can't cope with videos, some can't hear audio (or not clearly), some struggle to read...
Show threadMatJun 1
@sunflowerinrain @kris @Edent a simple solution would be people being able to express their preferred method of communication, in the same way people can express their pronouns. This is not a technical problem, but one of interpersonal communication.