To fully understand the message, you need to hear more than the words that are spoken or written - the verbals. Verbal communication is with words - not necessarily spoken. Non-verbals include paralanguage (pitch, tone, speed, volume) and visual (body language).
Neither paralanguage nor visual communication is possible on the net. Or is it?
Shortly after the world went on line, emotion icons - emoticons - started popping up. I've got a list of emoticons I've collected over the years that you might enjoy - and please let me know of ones I've missed!
Another interesting development on the net is something that had been around a few years before I ran across it in 1995: Geek Code. When you communicate with someone - and half of that is listening - the meaning of the message changes depending on the person's frame of reference and field of experience. The closer alike the two communicators are, the easier it is to communicate accurately. Characteristics that establish your frame of reference include age, sex and culture. Contributing to your field of experience is your profession, your neighborhood and your school (both where and what level). Geek Code is a way of telling all this and more. For more information, check out www.geekcode.com.
Other ways to convey meaning are more direct, like when you include words such as grin or smirk in parentheses in the text. To emphasize a word, you can SHOUT it, or *highlight* it or _underline_ it. Abbreviations, such as IRL (in real life) and BTW (by the way) have also come into use as a shorthand for communicating on the internet.
How and why do you use emoticons? Let me know by filling out the emoticon questionnaire.