Word: tells
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...Consider how you last heard some stinging bad news. Did the bearer of that news have the courage to tell you in person, or perhaps did you get the word by voicemail? Or how about the last time you declined an invitation - did you resort to email, so you didn't have to see the glance of disappointment on the inviter's face...
...easier to break up with a boyfriend by text message than face him in person; that way, you don't have to suffer through his tears. Just like it's easier to complain about restaurant service online than to tell the waiter there's a fly in the soup. And we enjoy confessing secrets to anonymous web sites visited by total strangers, but we can't admit that same secret to the one person we betrayed...
...Thanks to technology, every literary agent can tell every author, "Your book's great." We let Amazon's rating system deliver the truth. Every politician can surround himself with yes men. Only the polls have the courage to say no. We're so accustomed to the watered-down, milquetoast version of news that when someone tells the truth, we're shocked and appalled...
...difference between talking in person and talking via technology is like the difference between an essay question and a True/False question. In face-to-face contact, far more than words are used to communicate. Tone is established, and para-verbal cues register mood. It's a lot harder to tell a convincing lie in person, and it's a lot harder to feign confidence. Rather than learn to manage these moments, we've punted it over to a realm where none of that matters...
...tell him that in politics, this is known as "playing the expectations game." It's an especially savvy spin to make right now, considering how the Lamont campaign has recently had to contend with an over-enthusiastic blogger's controversial photoshop comment on the race. In the wake of that flare-up, Lamont insisted that "I don't know anything about the blogs." Some found that disingenuous. But Moulitsas backs him up. "He doesn't read the blogs. I know that for a fact. In fact, I'm always distrustful of candidates who do read blogs, because if they...