For context, I do use sarcasm but recently I’ve decreased it greatly, especially in the past few months. However, I’ve often got comments from close friends that ‘I always sound sarcastic’ and even **I** feel like I sound sarcastic even though I’m trying to be genuine and use phrases that otherwise wouldn’t come off as sarcasm if spoken by someone else. It’s even gotten as far as a couple of people telling me on 2-3 different occasions that my laughter and the way in which I laugh sounds sarcastic. I’m not really sure what to do about it because I can’t really change how I laugh. Maybe it’s my voice or my accent? Maybe I’m using the wrong intonation? I don’t know what to do, to be honest, and I have no idea how to fix it because I’ve also had people call me kind on just as many instances so I don’t think it’s that I act in an ‘ingenuine’ manner, more of I sound like or I come off as if I’m not being genuine? I’m really not sure about anything beyond that but any advice on what I could do would be much appreciated.
TLDR: I try not to use sarcasm, but no matter what people tell me I sound sarcastic, especially when I laugh. Is there anything I could do to come off as more genuine or less ‘mean’?
1 comment
I get this. People can’t tell whether you are serious or joking. It has to do with the tone of your voice. Maybe you have a lack of ups and downs when you speak. Either that or your tone doesn’t match the message. People use tone to determine the emotion and intent involved. A flat voice is difficult for most people to understand the meaning / intent. It sounds stupid, but it’s true. Think about texting and how often texts are misunderstood. There’s no tone
On the other end of the spectrum, there’s tone without logical substance. Take a rambling speech by a populist politician. All they have to do is use tone and some buzz words and the crowd turns into a ravenous chanting mob
I’m still horrible with tone by the way. I think it’s a psychological thing. I’m working on it
Humans. I’m not sure how we made it this far.
Edit: corrected spelling of two words: your to you and time to tone.