DEAR CLOUD SUPPORT: They Were Just Typing, Then...Nothing

摘要

Dear Nervous, You're certainly not alone in dreading this quirk of digital communication. The ellipsis, one of the most common indicators that someone is typing, is meant to create a sense of anticipation, recalling the pauses in fictional dialog or the ominous cliffhanger (to be continued...) that begs us to follow the dots, like a breadcrumb trail, to the narrative's conclusion. To watch the symbol disappear without the expected message is to experience the sinking disappointment we associate with paywalled articles and unresolved television seasons-stories without ends-and the absence of resolution can breed paranoia. Perhaps your conversational partner got abruptly distracted in the middle of her text. Perhaps she is obsessively rereading what she just wrote, weighing whether or not to press Send. Perhaps she was about to tell you, finally, what she really thinks of you, but at the last moment reconsidered. The ellipsis is also used in print to signal an omission, and it's this latter usage that comes to mind when the typing stops and no message arrives, leaving you with nothing more than the knowledge that the words signified by those three dots were deemed unworthy of your attention-or worse, you were deemed unworthy of them.