ABSTRACT
Over the past fifty years, nonverbal behaviors (NVB) have been studied extensively because of their meaning and importance in social interaction. Much of that literature has examined cross-cultural similarities and differences in actual NVB across diverse channels—facial expressions, postures, gestures, voice, and approaches—and the findings have important implications for face-to-face (FTF) interactions. Today, however, social interactions are more frequently occurring in computer-mediated communication (CMC) (e.g., e-mails, text messages, online chatting), which anyone across cultures can access almost anytime. Although much of this type of online communication involves text, over the years, innovative uses of both text and graphics have emerged as a way to overcome limitations in depicting NVB in CMC, and thus CMC has received more attention in the recent research literature.
