It's all about facial expressions...

But why?

We have to ask ourselves an important question first: What is a facial expression really? Let's ask our beloved Wikipedia:
A facial expression results from one or more motions or positions of the muscles of the face. These movements convey the emotional state of the individual to observers. Facial expressions are a form of nonverbal communication. They are a primary means of conveying social information among humans, but also occur in most other mammals and some other animal species.

This tells us we need our facial muscles to communicate with others. This means we can understand the nonverbal signs that others around us send us while we are talking to them. In great contrast to what happens while we speak on the internet. Every day I see people fight over the internet because they don't see those nonverbal communication signs in the forumposts of another person.

Yes, we can use smileys and try to express ourselves this way. Yes we can try to watch the way we write, but somehow, somewhere along the road we get lost in translation. Just like the Dutch Gorilla Bokito (Rotterdam Zoo) who got out of his enclosure to show the lady who had been grinning at him for years that he was actually the boss (grinning at a Gorilla is actually a sign of being agressive). He didn't understand what she was trying to do (she was smiling at him) and she never really understood that he was offended by what she did (even though she had been warned over and over again).

In our digital age, we all get to be this huge Gorilla Bokito, misunderstanding the digital words that come towards us. We misinterpret what people are trying to bring across because we can't see what they mean exactly, we only get to hear what they wrote, and what we think they say...

So, where this is going? Towards showing that some people actually try to communicate with those facial expressions, without the words. And leaving us wondering whether this is a better way to communicate than with words. Can we bring a message across with words and without the facial expressions, or the other way around...

What way is best? Be the judge...

In colour






In black & white