Gesture in the Online World

There is a constant idea that things are lost in translation on the internet. It is a constant problem because words can be misconstrued as well as a person's tone. Gestures, tones of voice, attitudes, emphasis are all lost by writing on the internet UNLESS they are underlined, italicized, capitalized, boldfaced, have a larger font, or something is dramatically different about that word to make it stand out from the rest. Most likely to make the point that the author was trying to convey. Writing has also become a lot less formal online so it is harder to perfectly understand the emotions behind an article, blog, post that is put up on the internet. The only way that true gestures are shown on the internet is through emoticons but also writing out how you feel (ex. *deep breath* or LOL) about the situation. However, most people do not literally laugh out loud when they write "LOL" they just want to be nice to the person that they are talking to online, but sometimes they do. Writing has become such a remote way of communication in our culture that it is seen as something that people don't really pay attention to unless it immediately pertains to them (or at least for the Y-Generation that seems to be occurring). This loss of understanding or creation of misunderstanding is diminishing the gestures that are transmitted through folk ways.