recently ive been trying to tune up my communication deficiencies, and one thing that always makes me cringe while thinking of problems and solutions is text-laughing. doing it feels emotionless and meaningless no matter what i decide to say, but theres a whole emotionally charged culture of dos and donts on texting tone and it feels so strict to me. there’s a pretty solid unspoken rule of text-laughing around not using expressions that would appear underemotive, like “lol” with no caps lock having a generally agreed upon aura of being dry and dismissive, along with other things of the like. at the same time though, im getting pretty tired of having to overreact to everything with “HELP IM DEAD JSHFJDH💀” at things that i frankly think arent even funny. it just feels so recycled and fake. one would think the solution to this would be simply not to say anything at all, and this definitely might work in a group chat where someone else can take the reins and you’d be free to hold your silence. but in a one-on-one conversation, the absence of laughter in a chat with otherwise high energy would lead to a sense of rejection, which kills the mood and makes things awkward. eventually the person would start thinking youre a dry person and come to associate you with antisocial behavior and rudeness, so thats not an option either.
typing in all caps and overexaggerating everything i say seems to be the only way to keep up the vibe of a conversation, even if its forced. otherwise, my tone is off and theres something “wrong”. it just feels so uncomfortably fake and theatrical to communicate myself that way though. any thoughts? is this something that other people think about too, or am i just being too picky? i would especially appreciate tips about getting around this whole thing if anyone has anything.