Karla's Kolumn: Read carefully and thoroughly ...

Reading is an important part of everyone's life. We read every day, whether it is traffic signs, school books, your music playlist, the guide on your TV, Facebook memes, tweets, or, of course, the newspaper.

But social media, instant messaging and texting has highlighted a problem that can happen in written messages – the tone in which the writer, texter, typist, means to convey the message.

When someone speaks to you, whether in person or on the phone, you know their tone. I'm sure you've heard the saying, "Don't talk to me in that tone of voice."

But in writing the tone is left up to the reader to interpret and sometimes the tone is misinterpreted and sometimes, without proper punctuation or inflection, the message is lost.

I remember when I first started out at the Lovell Chronicle in one of my first columns I was irate about something. I wrote a column when the boss was out of town. I had the production manager read it. After reading it she asked, "Do you feel better?" I said, "Yes." She said, "Good, now rewrite it." And I did, and it was much better.

She could tell my tone as it oozed out of my writing but that's not always the case.

When I worked in Basin we had an instant messaging system between us and our two sister newspapers. I would go home at times and tell my husband, well so-and-so said this in their message and he would look at me calmly and say "I think you are reading too much into it."

I would go back and read it again and realize with a different attitude the message took on a different "tone" and thus a different message.

Sometimes misinterpreting a tone can get us into trouble where we think someone is being mean or angry and they are not, it is our own attitude as we read it.

Sometimes, however, the misinterpretation can lead to a funny, laughable moment between best friends.

Case in point. Monday I'm text-chatting with my BFF and she sends a picture of the blooming quesadilla she made for the Powell hospital board. I told her it looked appetizing and aesthetically pleasing (No I really didn't use those words specifically).

She replied ... Pinterest baby Pinterest.

I read it as Pinterest, Baby Pinterest. You know like Bond, James Bond.

So I asked her what Baby Pinterest was. I'm not the hippest when it comes to new forms of social media. I have a Facebook, Twitter and an Instagram account but I only use Facebook, and only to post cute pics of my dogs.

OK, back to the story.

She replies, "No one likes a smart @#$"

I said, "What?"

Then I reread what she wrote and in my head I heard the inflection. Pinterest baby! Pinterest.

She got the idea from Pinterest, not baby Pinterest. There is no baby Pinterest.

I got it now. I told her so.

So when you read something, be careful how you read it. Reread it if you have to.

And speaking of reading, a pet peeve of mine is people who do not read an entire email, post or text or story.

Whether it be in the newspaper or on stories online, people read a headline and comment. Had they read the entire story they would realize their comments make no sense or their questions would have been answered.

So when you read, read carefully and read it all.

And now I leave you with this meme I saw just as I thought I had finished this column .... "I was walking past a farm and a sign said, 'Duck, eggs.' I thought that is an unnecessary comma ... and then it hit me."

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So let's see how many read until the end.

One final thought this week. I appreciate the two people who heard a rumor about the newspaper coming directly to me to get the real scoop.

So to put rumors to bed, the future for the Northern Wyoming News looks bright, and it looks to be a long and fulfilling future. So ignore any rumors that you may hear to the contrary.