Emoticons ;D

As taken from the radio talk show ABC radio national as presented by Anthony Funnell as he discusses the how it is hard to interpret what we write to each other using text based messages without the use of emoticons. For more check out http://www.abc.net.au/rn/mediareport/stories/2007/2064342.htm

Emoticons give a significant impact in non-verbal communications. They are used to give out symbols of emotions.

Miscommunication can happen during sending non-verbal text to each other for example


An innocent email like this can have two interpretations:

Enthusiastic reader
“Dear John, the carnival was great. Thanks for all your help and contribution. You were of great help.”

Sneering reader
“Dear John, the carnival was great. Thanks for all your help and contribution. You were of great help.”


People become over confident and perceive these text to their own liking without knowing the true emotions behind them. Emoticons give these mere text symbols give a non verbal cues and help readers undestand the true meaning of these messages.



"Nonverbal communication adds nuance or richness of meaning that cannot be communicated by verbal elements alone. Given time and experience, some of the same richness of real-time, face-to-face communication can occur in a virtual, text-based medium."

Just by combining different alphabets and text symbol, they can resemble emotions and faces.

(J.Gajadhar and J. Green 2005)



references


J.Gajadhar and J. Green (2005) The Importance of Nonverbal Elements in Online Chat
<http://connect.educause.edu/Library/EDUCAUSE+Quarterly/TheImportanceofNonverbalE/39942
>


Wikipedia.org<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emoticons>