Is MN screaming just...well.....shouting?

[katzenellenbogen]

I have always understood "screaming" to mean something along the lines of Janet Leigh in the shower in Psycho or Violet Elizabeth Bott.

I have been on MN for a couple of years now and will admit to being shocked by the number of people (often, but not exclusively, MILs) who resort to screaming when they don't get their own way.

It now occurs to me that posters are more likely to just mean "shouting" which puts things in a whole different light. Is it just me?

I think people over-egg it to seem more dramatic.

I honestly think its just shouting

Yep. See also 'retching' (a.k.a. finding something a bit unpleasant) and 'mortified' (a bit put-out).

See also 'shaking with rage' over something really trivial

My favourite is when MNetters are described as (often on Twitter) "foaming at the mouth" or women only are branded "hysterical" .

I sometimes use "screaming" to distinguish enraged/aggressive/threatening shouting from simply raised-voice shouting. Because they are very different things and I think the nuance matters.

See also “fuming” about being receiving too many coins in change, “crass” to keep shoes on indoors, pointing out the pretty church is “indoctrination”; all the words on MN bingo cards.

Another forum I'm on, the parenting section was nicknamed by users in other sections, not so affectionately, as 'the lactating hyenas'. . .

Also "vile". Anyone disagreeing with you is vile.

Let us not forget 'grim'.

Not just you, op.

Similarly on MN people never just talk to someone about something, they always 'confront' them. They don't ask, they 'demand'.

Hyperbole rules.

Thank goodness I am not alone!

they always 'confront'

Confront is relatively mild - I like it when they "call them out"

I always imagine some sort of yodeller in full lederhosen Just outside obviously.

Screaming is high pitched shouting or yelling. So if you imagine screaming but in words rather than incomprehensible sounds.

My partner's from Sheffield and always says 'screaming' when he means 'shouting'. Not sure if it's a Sheffield thing. Occasionally I demonstrate the difference in volume and facial expressions to remind him of the difference

Hahahaha I have often wondered this, I imagine screaming as a high pitched and very panicked/frantic. The only time I have heard it in real life was when I worked briefly in a secure mental health unit. I can't possibly think any of the threads I have read it on really mean that someone "screamed in my face" it's just absurd and would surely result in the police being called for that level of aggressive public behaviour

Another one is 'demanding'.

"MIL demanded photos of the kids".

No actually, she asked for them but you don't like her so...

A lot of the posts read like a jilly cooper novel

Well, you can scream words, and that is different to shouting, isn't it? Screaming implies more intense emotion.

As said upthread, it's probably mostly just hyperbole.

I'm always a bit surprised at "I was up all night crying" when it's as a result of something seemingly trivial, a friend being distant, not being invited to something etc. Always seems terribly dramatic!

Yes to 'fuming' and 'livid'.

I'll see your "I was up all night crying" and raise you a "In floods of tears at this thread"

10 years versus 'a decade' always amuses me too.

"I've known my friend 10 years and we normally go out to the pub together".

"I've known my friend a decade and she doesn't want to go to the pub with me".

It's always a decade when someone isn't happy and 10 years if they are

Occasionally I demonstrate the difference in volume and facial expressions to remind him of the difference

I am "in bits" no I'm not

I always imagine Mumsnetters who say they screamed probably just inwardly rolled their eyes then rushed home home a started a dramatic post about it

'I am sat here crying'

We have people living in the basement. I'm never sure whether they're shouting or just have Field Voices.