Video chats in real-time with voice and video are an integral feature of our lives. We chat with friends and families using favorite messengers that support this functionality. It has never been easier to talk with a person on the opposite side of the Earth as if you are in the same room. Online communication is popular and practical, and many dozens of online random chats prove it.
Talk with a stranger about everything is a popular hobby. This way, you can find a friend, a date, or just spend some time chatting. On the other hand, such online communication with anonymous users suggests significantly fewer barriers. And it means it is much easier to hurt a person in a video chat.
Don’t Say It: Hurtful Phrases to Avoid in Conversation
When you are talking offline to your friends, family, colleagues, or any other people you know, you won’t offend them. No one in a sound mind would like to offend other people! Still, it is possible to hurt even the people you know well accidentally. Let alone people whom you see for the first time in the video chat.
The problem is, you know nothing about them – which phrases or statements are hurtful for them. You might be stepping on really thin ice. But we are here to help you avoid such problems. Let us consider the phrases to avoid in video chats of any nature.
Phrases that Breach the Community Rules
Any decent random video chatting platform has its rules. Before joining the conversation, get familiar with those rules and read them carefully. They should provide you with information about inappropriate behavior and phrases to avoid in conversation. Usually, that means offensive statements related to specific aspects like race, age, or gender.
Overused Quotes from Popular Shows
Great scriptwriters create these shows. Their jokes are polished and meant for citing. But what is great on TV, is different in real life. There is nothing wrong with using a joke or two when it is relevant. It can even be your “code” showing you belong to the same circle.
But if you cite too many jokes from the shows, especially the same show, they start to annoy your companion. They become stop phrases for the communication, making the companion wonder if it is all that you know if that was the only show you watched, and why on Earth you are showing off like that.
Cliché from Dating Apps
This problem is especially common for men who are chatting with women and girls in random video chats. They are banal – the phrase about height (because it matters) might be fresh and funny once, but that was long ago.
And it certainly would not provoke any interest in a female companion – annoying her is more probable. The same goes for most dating apps‘ phrases – they are banal, blank, and often cringy.
Common Cliché that Is Just Wrong in A Context
These phrases aren’t offensive by nature, and they should not be annoying. They are common phrases to help you. But they make everything worse.
- “Don’t take this personally” – you are going to say something unpleasant and think this phrase should protect you from the anger of your companion. Quite often, people use it when they are going to offend the group of people the companion belongs to, thus trying to separate the companion. But it always provokes an opposite reaction.
- “This might sound stupid, but” – are you trying to hide your concerns? Are you so unsure about your ideas in a difficult conversation? This phrase sounds like an excuse, and a weak one. It is much better to just expose your idea, point out that you understand its weaknesses, and offer your companion to articulate their opinion on that matter.
- “It’s just a joke” – is a phrase mostly used after offending the companion, when you understand that you’ve said it all wrong. But turning it into a joke is immature, and it is one of the top phrases convincing the companion to leave the chat. If you said something you should not have said, say sorry.
- “You should” – people are glad to know what they should do when they ask for that. If they don’t need your advice – avoid this phrase. If you want to recommend something to your companion, better say “I would do this because…” and explain your reasons.
These examples are few, but, unfortunately, they are too common in conversations, no matter if it is a difficult conversation in business or a chat with a nice girl on a random video chatting platform. These phrases ruin the atmosphere. Just keep them in mind and avoid using them.
How to Change the Conversation Topic Quickly
Assume you have failed. You said something that offended your companion. It is very unpleasant, but it is not a death sentence.
Say sorry. Explain that you never meant to offend another person, and you want them to forgive those words.
Change the topic. You can simply tell “let’s talk about…” – and offer a new topic related to the interests of your companion. It helps to shift the focus.
Eventually, we are all human beings and not perfect ones. We make errors, but the goal is to learn from them and never let them happen again. Yes, you should be careful when chatting online. However, the basic rules of politeness are a great support.
