E-mail has no body language. Body language can make a lot of difference. Try listening to the soundtrack of a musical you have never seen; it does not make much sense.
The words on their own can convey the wrong impression. People can sound grumpy, sharp or serious. Or sound flippant when they are being serious.
If you are too pompous, or if someone disagrees with you a heated response can come back _ it is called flaming.
Another Internet tradition, FYI, is abbreviating, BTW. IMHO (in my humble opinion) and PMJI (pardon me jumping in) are other examples.
Internet users do use a kind of body language to signify the nature of subsequent messages. An example is the smiley or colon, hyphen and close bracket. It looks like this 🙂 and when you turn your head left you see someone smiling. Others are Evil Grin }:-) Unhappy 🙁 Grim 😐 Happy with beard :-)} and Wink 😉 and you can use them on your own E-mail net.
Internet used to be the exclusive domain of the universities.
Now lesser mortals can access it, for a price.
You need a PC and modem.
In Canberra, Capital Connections on modem line 2927655 and voice 2925366 has a joining fee of $30 and then $10 a month flat. Capital Connections is part of the Australian Public Access Netwrok Association. CC’s Graig Gibson says the association is non-profit and caters mainly for small non-commercial users. His link to the net is slow, but cheap. Once in you can download Windows-based interface software.
Oz-Email on modem line 2572662 has a faster link, but is more expensive. It has a $25 start-up fee and $10 a hour or $5 and hour in off-peak times. It provides a Windows interface. You need a 386 or better and Windows 3.1. They are offering the first five hours free if you mention The Canberra Times.
Compuserve is voice on 008 025 240 and they send you the start-up pack: Windows or Mac. It is very easy to use, but expensive.