Oh, how I hated this one when I was a poor, misunderstood teenager.
But yes, Dear Mother may have had a point. Body language is pretty key in most human interaction. And yes, I was barely even aware of my own tone and body language throughout most of the nineties. I’m sorry, Ma.
This also has relevance in the online world where people can’t read your body language or hear your inflection. It’s not always easy to get tone from an email, so it’s often beneficial for me to tread lightly at first (until people realize what a delightful, sarcastic wit I am).