(Image taken from https://toneindicators.carrd.co/#) 

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

While nonverbal communication (such as head shaking, gesturing, facial expressions, etc.) play a significant role in interpreting meaning for face-to-face interactions, they are distinctly absent from most forms of online interactions. While internet speech has adopted emoticons and punctuation as a form of indicating tone, these can prove insufficient for shared understanding of text amongst all communities, as an ellipsis (...) or a smiling face (🙂) can read differently to users depending on factors such as age, neurodivergence, familiarity with the other party, etc. Tone indicators are meant to explicitly state what the intended tone of the message is, so that readers do not have to interpret for themselves what the messenger is trying to convey. 

Why the Need for Tone Indicators?

List of Tone Indicators

The standardization of tone indicators within the larger community is based on solidarity and agreement of members. This type of solidarity is known as intersubjectivity, in which individuals come together in order to form a common shared understanding. 

Intersubjectivity in Tone Indicators

From June 2021 through July 2021, researchers observed and interviewed Twitter users aged 15-20 on their usage of tone indicators. The young age of participants reflects that the primary users of tone indicators at the moment are teenagers who may experience difficulty in interpreting tone and/or want to make their social media more inclusive to a variety of audiences.

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