Nonverbal communication and cultural differences: issues for face-to-face communication over the internet

The various forms of interpersonal communication that take place on the internet are considered and several questions concerning the efficacy of interpersonal communication over the internet are raised (i.e. whether this form of communication can be compared to actual face to face communication, …). The means of communication over the internet not ever allow access to “kinesic” behaviours through the visual channel or to vocal-intonational modulations of speech through the auditory channel; they cannot therefore count on a wide range of non-verbal signals that are of extreme importance for certain communicative processes. Graphic and linguistic strategies permit internet users to compensate for this lack of communicative signals and make communication via internet more immediate, natural, spontaneous and expressive. The videoconference too would be an effective means for guaranteeing the sense of presence to interlocutors; it can be used in many different areas: at work (long-distance collaboration and meetings between people in different locations), long-distance education (teleteaching, e-learning); health (telemedicine, telehealth, psychotherapy), in legal contexts. This contribution, finally, analyses the videocommunication interactions between individuals belonging to different cultures and evaluates the differences in non verbal communication in this perspective.