Non-verbal Communication

There’s a saying that 80% of communication is non-verbal.

We as humans don’t only communicate with our words. We communicate with our eyes, tone, gestures, and body language.

Paul Ekman, popularized the Facial Action Coding System (FACS) in which facial microexpressions can be detected within a fraction of a second showing what emotions someone’s feeling. We can detect these cues subconsciously but this gets lost over online calls.

So many non-verbal cues get lost over online call. Turning on video is one way to compensate for this loss. But nothing compares to talking in person. During this quarantine I’m sure this is something we all agree with.