ABSTRACT
This chapter surveys a variety of non-verbal elements of contemporary technologically mediated communication. It examines the impact of non-verbal on intimate relationships. This includes both emoji and image-intensive platforms like Snapchat. Snapchat is interesting because it is used most frequently for contact with close social connections. The influence of technologically mediated communication's non-verbals on attention involves three factors: temporality, shared images, and the importance of faces to the human cognitive system. In addition to impacting attention, non-verbal components of technologically mediated communication can impact users' emotional affect and evaluations. They can influence both senders and messages. Thus, they can affect the character of relationships sustained by technologically mediated communication. The chapter addresses three major things that can influence the character and quality of relationships: faces, humor, and, paradoxically, detachment. All else being equal, people prefer asynchronous communication channels over synchronous ones. Much of this preference seems to be the result of power dynamics.
