What do you see, when you say “I See”?
In Text Messaging, the phrase “I See” has got to be the rudest and laziest conversation stopper ever. Don’t get me wrong, I use this phrase in regular face-to-face conversations, but never in Text Messaging. In my opinion, it is rude. Really.
I tried Googling “I See” and found out this is really a phrase to mean “I understand what you mean” and it’s followed by a further response if you agree with what you just heard, or if you disagree (more often a disagree). BUT there’s a follow up.
This is why I feel it’s ok to use in in regular face-to-face conversation, which gives you the opportunity to further explain yourself after using that phrase. Alas, in Text Messaging, unless you are prepared to further type out what you meant, many just end their text conversation with “I see”!
So I googled further and found this in the Urban Dictionary: It’s the word everyone uses when someone just told you something and you literally can’t come up with anything else to respond with. So in essence you use “I see”, a response when you have nothing better to say.
Am I the only one who thinks this is really rude? Esp if you typed out a whole lot, or truly expressed how you felt, and the person just goes “I see”. I’ve been tempted nearly every time to respond, “erm what do you see??” And my next immediate thought that crosses my head is, “too lazy to type out what you see ah?”
Maybe it’s me being overly sensitive. But with so much text messaging going on in our lives now, I feel it is essential to know what’s spoken in conversations cannot really be ‘migrated’ to text messaging. It’s really quite likened to a slammed door in your face.
Then of course if you go “OIC”, it changes things. Using acronyms In text messaging is a whole new post on its own. But same principle applies. Using “I see”, “IC” or “OIC” is just as much as a stopper in text messages.
I’m ranting here, and I don’t think I can change how text messaging is evolving. Someone just got to teach me how to respond to a “I see” next time.
