I must confess I am super annoyed with other bloggers, theorist, professionals and academics claiming that nonverbal cues are absent in computer-mediated communication, such as social networking sites.
While this may have been true 20 plus years ago when we were first learning to use the internet, this is no longer true! Social networking is packed with nonverbal cues, we just have to stop and notice them. While traditionally nonverbal communication may not pop out at us when communicating via a computer, nonverbal cues are there. When I say this we are constantly sending some sort of nonverbal messages online. For instance the images we choose to send to our friends can be seen as a form of a nonverbal cue, meaning we select these images for a purpose full of intention behind them much of the time without even realizing it. Next, time you select a picture to post, stop and think what message am I actually sending? Do I want others to see me as outgoing? Fun? Energetic? It is true, we can not not communicate, simplistically meaning, like it or not we are always communicating something!
Tag: Facial expression
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Lacking Nonverbal Communication
Whether we like it or not social media is changing the way we communicate as human beings. I say this because once upon a time primarily all of human communication was done face to face, meaning we would actually aim to meet someone in person and have a conversation with them face to face. However, this is no longer the case, as more and more relationships are being formed and maintained via computer mediated communication (social networking). In forming our relationships in such a way questions may arise, the first being; how do we accommodate for the lack of nonverbal communication using a computer as the tool for communication? As you may know nonverbal communication speaks louder than words! When I talk about nonverbal communication, I am speaking to what we say without saying anything, whether it be through our body language, the tone we use when we do speak, or the facial expressions we use.
No longer being able to view our friends, family, business associates, and others in person, how does the lack of nonverbal communication signals effect these relationships?
Therefore, it is extremely important next time you log onto the social network of your choice, think about the ways in which you accommodate for the lack of nonverbal communication…do you use your punctuation to depict emotion? Do you use emoticons? What are you thoughts on the lack of nonverbal communication via social networking?