It isn't a new thing to say that Internet-based communication lacks the subtlety of emotion and intent that face-face communication has. What I am interested in is this - will it ever change? Will it ever get better? What percentage of communication really does lay in the unspoken facial movements, body language, and the spoken inflection?

Are we simply on the long process of getting used to not relying on those things to get our points across or will we rebel against these new forms of non-face-face communication? Will we ever get used to not seeing someone's eyebrows as they talk or hearing their intonation?

Thoughts to ponder on this memorial day.

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I believe it can get a little bit better. Just consider great works of literature: well-written texts can convey emotions without the physical presence of the author. So, if people take great care in writing their own language, things can get a little bit better. However, I do believe nothing beats seeing and hearing the person you're talking with. One of the biggest problems with communication, I find, is trying to figure out the motives of the speaker or the intent behind what he or she is communicating. Unless the speaker is truly open and very articulate, you'll need to observe his or her body language, the eyes, the tone of voice and other types of physical language to, well, "read" between the lines. Percentages are hard to determine, though. Compare it with falling in love: you do not necessarily need any verbal communication for that, the "feel" of a person can be enough. The internet is great for factual information, but in general the much needed subtleties of emotion are reserved for face-face communication. And I believe that is a good thing. Our innate need for affection and human warmth will prevent most of us from becoming complete antisocial typing robots. We probably need not even rebel.
(BTW: sorry for the lack of style in my English, it is not my native language)

i completely think it will. since this whole thing is still in its infancy (really, it is) i think in 5 or so yrs (that soon) pple will have been able to establish real broadband connections on a much more regular basis and you will be able to see things like Stephensons "metaverse" as depicted in SnowCrash.
as for how much communication is lost, well, you know, some conversations can go really well (if you take the time and have the speed to keep up with inflectiion *shrugs*) but most serious (between two pple) conversation can really drop into a semi-lsd conevrsation where you have to backtrack and find the moment all went askew.....thats no fun. but, all in all, this is one f the best mediums for teaching pple to think about what the other person is saying, as-opposed-to, just prattling off an answer first, imho.

I've seen a post about this here before...and the larger question is why do you want it to be the same?

Human interaction is at its best in person. Not because of anything inherently wrong with electronic communication, but because of the chemical reaction between two people when they are in the same space. A kiss, an embrace, the infectious sound of laughter, a trace of a smile...these things are beautiful and incredible to me.

And I don't ever want to be "used to" those things being unnecessary. And would hope that those I love woudn't either.

that is what web cams are for

Hi, Lucky here;

Hmmm...
Good question. Very interesting subject.

I hear that well over 75% of ALL comminication is non-verbal, so you definately have a good point here.

And I have often wished there was a good way to express one's emotions in the internet communications they elicit.

I've thought about alot (said Lucky, as he wrinkles his brow and comes up with absolutely nothing pertinent).

I thought about how: Perhaps...To do it right (or at least with more depth, we'd sort of have to get comfortable with "screenplay scripting" or a novel writing approach. (said Lucky, wondering if this is making any sense at all.)

In a screen play, you not only have the dialogue, yuo have the rest of it. I am not a screen play writer or a novelist, so I'm just guessing here. But In a screen play or a novel you get not only the words but some descriptions or what they person is doing or thinking as they say the words they say. That would be great if it became conventional to do that in our internet written communications. It would certainly add depth and understanding to the communications. (At least I think it would.)

"Yeah, Lucky, so show us whatcher talkin' about , Dude".

Lucky raises his eye brows...takes anothe hit off his Budweiser, and goes "Hmmm, should I really be doing this, wouldn't want to make an ass out of myself on line now would I?" Lucky shrugs it off and says Oh, well, what the fuck...and composes himself so he can sound perfectly normal as he writes his response to this very cool message.

So here we are wondering about rebelling against this new internet form of non-face-to-face communication. Well, I personally could go there. (Then Lucky, raises his eyebrows, shakes his head, and thinks..."Yeah, but people really have to like to write, and communicate to go there." Most people like to have the buffer of the written word in place so they don't have to fully reveal who they are or what some of their thoughts and feelings are. And I think that's a good thing.

We are all such complex Entities...We even express things to ourselves we wish wouldn't. So it's a blessing (in a way) that we can express ourselves to our on-line friends without our wierd or negative stuff showing up in the written message.

On the other hand, I think it would be great if we could express ourlselves on-line in a way that would reveal more of our true feelings in the moment. (Me, now? I kinda feel insecure about how this message is going to come across....However if I weren't expressing this aspect of it all, readers would prehaps find it difficult to tell, I was feeling alittle insecure about it.

So I guess it's human nature that we hold back alot of how we really feel when we communicate, even in face-to-face situations.

What I like about internet communications is that we have to ability to filter out the crap about OURSELVES that we don't like and only communicate that part of us, and those feelings, we feel are appropriate or right for the moment. (said Lucky, thinking,"Hey good point dude!")

But I still wish we had somthing more than smiling faces, and "LOLs" to communicate our feelings.

That's all for now...(said Lucky, contemplating another brewski.)

Sincerely,
Lucky

Lucky does indeed have a good point... and I also agree with SpicyGrrl.

Webcams (which for the sake of this will be considered the most evolved digital communication to date) just don't cut it, I'm afraid. Sure, facial expressions, body language, and inflections add dimension to the spoken word, but humans are undeniably multi-sensory beings. Absolutely "complex Entities." And I feel that there are subconscious/chemical/spiritual parts of ourselves that are ignored when communication is digitized and sent through wires and circuits, regardless of the speed or complexity.

One could argue that we are all energy, which could hypothetically be harnessed to replicate human *vibes,* if you may. Talk about science fiction for another millenium, though. I was about to say that I hope that never happens, but if a machine could elicit the spiritual and chemical reactions in a human that prior only another human being could cause, that would be the Matrix, wouldn't it? and none of us would really know the difference. Or would it really matter?

More realistically, I don't think non-face-to-face communication will *ever* rival being in person, no matter how accustomed to it we become. Internet is extremely convenient for matters not dealing with the heart. For anything remotely soul-related (for lack of a better term), it will remain only a dull, inadequate representation of the whole, the whole being the beauty of silence with a loved one, an embrace, a smile you can see, hear, and feel (what is feeling?), or a scent. And of course, words will never describe those "connections" which cannot be comprehended by the mind and which are so often labeled for that reason as "love" or "soul mates."

It is all a beautiful mystery, and I hope it remains as that.

i am a student of interaction design and this is exactly the topic of my thesis. Please have a look at my website http://people.interaction-ivrea.it/g.chadha/Theses/natural_interaction_workshop.htm for a statement of intent. Essentially i am looking at restoring the roal of non-verbal and verbal gestures in mobile, communication. I began by making two representations for the head movements, a virtual character and a physical head that moves around as you move your head....i know..i know...would there ever be a mobile phne with this stuff..i dont know...but it was interesting to try out these things, to see what made the difference...or did it really...now i am planning to look at vibratyion in the mobile phone and a bending and twisting kinda phone.

what have i learnt from all this:
I began with the notion that technology had misfired badly by only developing a single channel of communication...why only voice...why not any thing else...but then i realised that ...what ever 'other' i am talking about cariies with it a lot of value, it carries intention and emotional content...that we may not always want to display...so the technology was kinda right in some ways...but then...what will happen if now i do provide some ways of gestural inputs...this is really difficult for me, because there are not many sensors that i can use unobtrusively for sensing the data...then again the papping becomes critical..interpretation becomes inevitable...what do i represent a head shake or a nod as...a sound, a virtual character, a twist of the phone, a buzzz... and people react to each of these things differently. But then we have also lived in a world of mediated communication devoid of these elements...dis embodied conversations have become the rule of the day as distances become large, technologies become smaller.... no great conclusions, but just a journy...have a look any ways, and drop me a line if any thoughts come by .. and if u wanna add to it..i really need some use scenarios ;-) ....

cheers
gaurav