[Moneyguy1]

After so many threads and so much rancor among some of us, I got to thinking: When we face one another and discuss something, we have the advantages of facial expression, body language, voice inflection as well as the words themselves. We also have the advantage of proximity which acts as a safety valve against saying something that could be misinterpreted as threatening. Telephones lose the visual clues and are therefore inferior to face-to-face. Here, on the internet, we have only the words; emoticons don't really do much. So, there is a lot of misunderstanding because words alone are inadequate.

Even in a face to face situation, we are limited to external communication; we cannot get "inside the head" of anyone else. So human communication is imperfect, and long distance makes it even moreso.

We are all alone in our own heads.