Etemenanki Effect?

Did you ever wonder if the words you're speaking have the same meanings to others as they have to you? Did you ever think that you were talking an entirely different language from everyone around you?

I used to disregard such thoughts. That is until recently.

I'm pretty certain you know about the old legend of the tower of babel. The story about god punishing the people trying to reach his glory by confusing their languages. Sometimes I get the feeling that the individual perceptions of a language are drifting so far apart that they become entirely different. And I've got the bad hunch that this is only getting worse.

To use an example out of my own personal experience: Whenever I applaud a member of the Online Gaming Clan I'm part off, I'd usually get a positive, if not happy, response. Now if I were to use the very same phrasing to acknowledge the archievements of a fellow student it'd result in my statement being seen as a major offense

This example however does not really illustrate the problem I'm getting at. While it certainly is a rather peculiar feature of social groups to coin their own terms, which might lead to rather extreme misunderstandings when applied in the wrong context, they're at least uniform within their scope of use. The real issue is, when a language is broken down to the point that people talking in the same "social dialect" cannot get across their messages.

In the past I used to be a rather active member of online communities, publishing numerous posts. Though as time progressed the frequence of such postings dropped drastically, though not due to the fact that I've got less things to say. It's rather that whenever my mouse cursor hovers on the fabled "submit" button I begin to ask myself a myriad of questions. "Could someone feel offended by my phrasing?" "Could someone mistaken someone of my casual statements for sarcasm, or take one of my more sarcastic phrases as what I'm actually saying?" "Am I stating the obvious, or am I failing to explain matters that seem obvious to me but might be essential to understand my message to others?"

The sheer ammount of misunderstandings I encountered in my time brought forth a feeling of uncertainity I've never before. Maybe I'm crediting this issue too much, but at those times I hover my mouse button over the afforementioned "submit" button I've come across the question "Do those words I just typed really mean what I believe them to?"

At those times, I'm really wondering if the messages I write and read, or rather reality as I perceive it, is reality at all or just a fancy creation of my little inner dream world, fully furbished with pink ponies.

Well too much thinking's supposed to hurt the brain, so I'll stop before I blabber more incomprehensible nonsense.