Tone of Voice, and How it Affects Your Message.

So on Tuesday, I posted on the limitations of language, today I want to talk about how tone of voice affects how you're understood.

First, a quick primer. Whenever you communicate with someone your sending them a message. Whatever you say to them is the message. However, and here's where it twists around, beneath your message is a meta-message. A message within your message. It's when people say yes but you can tell them mean no. The meta-message doesn't always have to differ from the main message, in fact alot of times it's used to enforce your message.

Tone of voice greatly affects your meta-message, and it can greatly change how the person you're talking to understands you. If you can control your tone of voice and have it line up with your message, you'll get way further. People respond to how you say just as much as what you say.

 Every time your parents told you they didn't like your tone of voice, it wasn't what you were saying that they didn't like, it was how you presented it to them. This still happens when you get older, except when you're older people don't take the time to tell you they don't like your tone of voice, they just tune you out. You're sunk before you've even started.

The biggest thing to remember is to never yell at strangers. I know I shouldn't have to say this, but I do. People actually think it helps to yell at a person when they want something. It's been enforced that if you complain loud enough you get your way. It's not true.

People who have to deal with this day in and day out go the opposite way. People who yell at service staff generally get less, I, personally will always do more for the person who is kind to me, then the person who yells because I don't believe negative behaviour should yield positive results. Trust me I'm not the only one. Plus, it's just not nice to be yelling at innocent people.

This has been Bloom and that's my time.