05/06/2020 Nonverbal Communication In a Digital World

Nonverbal Communication In a Digital

World
(https://www.hubgets.com/blog/no
nverbal-communication-digital-
world/)
th Jul by Alice Calin (Https://Www.Hubgets.Com/Blog/Author/Alicec/)
in Teamwork (Https://Www.Hubgets.Com/Blog/Category/Teamwork/)

No one can deny the enormous benefits brought by digital

communication. However, being able to communicate with people without
actually seeing or hearing them has downsides too. We lose the social cues
offered by nonverbal communication.

Nonverbal communication is possible in the digital world

We might not always be aware of it, but body language makes up about
55% of communication (https://medium.com/@struber/the-importance-
of-non-verbal-communication-in-a-digital-world-emma-mcmillan-
f0f457b42f85). From facial expressions such as a raised eyebrow, to the
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05/06/2020 Nonverbal Communication In a Digital World

direction your foot is pointing while being involved in a dialogue,

everything can be a cue that might indicate to the other person how we
feel at that exact moment.

Another 38% of communication is expressed through the tone of our

voice, and only 7% through words. This means that digital
communication, while fast and convenient, lacks 93% of the signals
transmitted through face-to-face communication.

Digital nonverbal communication 

Even though digital communication is mostly typing down words, there
are still some nonverbal components that add context and give out social
cues. Let’s dive in and see what those are and how you can use them to
communicate more effectively in a digital world.

Emoticons 
Originating in the early 1980s, emoticons added a new dimension to
digital communication. From the simple smiley and sad faces to frowning,
raising eyebrows, laughing, or crying, emojis cover a wide range of human
emotions, successfully substituting human facial expressions.

Just as in face-to-face situations, more expressive people use emoticons

more frequently than less expressive people. Also, women use more
emoticons than men, and interestingly enough, the significance of
emoticons varies by culture. If for most Americans and Europeans 🙂
indicates a smiley face, for Japanese people that would be a ^_^

Emoticons are such a valuable form of nonverbal communication that

different teams of neuroscientists have studied
(https://www.fastcompany.com/3033794/the-neuroscience-of-
emoticons) the reactions they trigger in the human brain. All studies came
to pretty much the same conclusion: emoticons triggered strong activity in
the brain area connected to processing emotions, even though they would

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05/06/2020 Nonverbal Communication In a Digital World

trigger no response in the brain area connected to recognizing human

faces. In other words, people are able to read the emotions conveyed by
emoticons while being aware of the fact that they do not represent real
human faces.

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Most powerful recognition of the emoticons importance was Facebook’s

decision to add several expressions to their Like button. Instead of simple
and straightforward Like and Dislike buttons, we can select from a range of
emotions the one closer to what the content makes us feel. Happy,
surprised, sad or angry are all human emotions expressed through an icon
that allows everyone else to acknowledge our feelings. 

Paralanguage 
Paralanguage is the non-lexical component of spoken communication. It
includes intonation, voice pitch and speed, gestures, hesitation noises, etc.
Even though all these seem to be lacking for written communication,
things aren’t exactly like that. *gasps*

A team of scientists
(https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303000998_Textual_Parala
nguage_and_Its_Implications_for_Marketing_Communications) from
the University of Wisconsin analyzed data from Twitter, Facebook and
Instagram to observe the implications of textual paralanguage in
marketing communications. They found that social media communication
is actually abundant with paralanguage. 😀
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05/06/2020 Nonverbal Communication In a Digital World

People are translating into writing pretty much all the components of
paralanguage, be it auditory, tactile, or visual. Using orthographic signs,
caps, third person speech, or translating noises into text are all tools of
paralanguage.

So next time you emphasize something REALLY important using caps,

when you are ummm… unsure what to reply, or let others know you
ROFL, know that you are using paralanguage. *facepalm*

GIFs
Every person with a Facebook account has most likely been involved into
at least one GIF dialogue. You know how that works – your friend adds a
GIF, you use a search term and choose the animated image that is closer to
your feelings, they reply with another one and so on until one of you gives
up.

GIFs (also called ‘reaction GIFs’ or ‘animgifs’) are so popular that about
two thirds of social media
(https://www.researchgate.net/publication/303259227_Emoticons_vs_
Reaction-Gifs_Non-
Verbal_Communication_on_the_Internet_from_the_Aspects_of_Visuali
ty_Verbality_and_Time) users know of or use them on a daily basis. Even
online publications use GIFs in their articles, especially when the subject
has a strong visual component – such as movies or sports.

Using GIFs in digital communication basically replaces the use of words

altogether. You don’t need a full sentence to express a thought or an
emotion when a simple GIF can do the job for you in an even funnier way.
For that reason, GIFs deserve their place among the tools of digital
nonverbal communication.

Nonverbal communication at work

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05/06/2020 Nonverbal Communication In a Digital World

While involved into casual chats with friends, most people will use
paralanguage, emoticons, and GIFs, in formal communication these might
seem inappropriate. You won’t reply to an email from your boss using a gif
or a thumbs up emoji. When you get a text from your team leader asking
you to make some changes you don’t really like, you probably won’t reply
mmkay *eyeroll*...

That doesn’t mean that nonverbal communication is totally lost in work-

related digital conversations. As more and more companies add new team
communication solutions on top of good old email, dialogue becomes
more open and friendly. For example Hubgets
(https://www.hubgets.com/product/tour) allows you to create topics that
can be kept serious and professional and topics that are meant for casual
team conversations.

HUG, Hubgets mascot, exercising

its nonverbal communication
skills 😉
The latter is the perfect occasion to put those nonverbal communication
skills to good use. 

This is just the beginning

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05/06/2020 Nonverbal Communication In a Digital World

As we can see, nonverbal communication is adapting to the technological

evolution. In this day and age, we are able to reconstruct most oral
communication into writing. Even though not exactly the same, people are
able to pick up on nonverbal cues and understand emotions, thoughts and
feelings expressed by others without the need of words.

Therefore, nonverbal communication is not getting lost in a digital world,

it has simply adapted and is evolving with it.

Tags: active listening (https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/active-listening/), body

language (https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/body-language/), business
communication (https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/business-communication/),
collaboration (https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/collaboration/),
communication (https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/communication/),
communication cues (https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/communication-
cues/), communication strategies
(https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/communication-strategies/), communication
style (https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/communication-style/),
communication techniques (https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/communication-
techniques/), efective listening (https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/efective-
listening/), effective communication
(https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/effective-communication/), effective listener
(https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/effective-listener/), effective team
communication (https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/effective-team-
communication/), email (https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/email/), emoji
(https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/emoji/), emoticon
(https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/emoticon/), hubgets
(https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/hubgets/), nonverbal
(https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/nonverbal/), nonverbal communication
(https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/nonverbal-communication/), social cues
(https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/social-cues/), talk
(https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/talk/), talking
(https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/talking/), team interactions
(https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/team-interactions/), teamwork
(https://www.hubgets.com/blog/tag/team-work/)

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