This brings us to the final question of the di erences in emotional communication in CMC and F2F that have not or hardly been considered in research to date and which may form the input of a new research agenda. The first most obvious di erence between online and o ine emotion communication is the absence of emotional embodiment. We can have our own emotional and bodily experiences in reaction towards messages from others, but we may generally assume that these reactions are generally less intense than when we are confronted with actual persons and situations. Moreover, the fact that we cannot touch, hold or hit others also implies that parts of the emotional impulses are simply inhibited by this medium. This also may lead to a decrease of the intensity ofhe emotional experience. In other words, we would argue that emotional experiences in reaction to online others may have the same quality, but have a lower intensity and prob-ably duration than in F2F situations. Research is needed to investigate this issue further.