Oh, the 1980s: A simpler time before the iPhone, when Stevie Wonder would just call to say I love you.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QwOU3bnuU0k

This idea has stayed with us in the modern, constantly connected world, where many people believe that Internet communication just isn't the same as picking up the phone. But, a new study out of Indiana University finds that this way of thinking may be totally wrong.

"I'm not a huge fan of the telephone. I've always loved email, I always thought it was very effective," said Taylor Wells, one of the authors of the study and assistant professor of management information systems at California State University, Sacramento. "So when there's this conventional wisdom, and the research says, 'Hey, we really shouldn't do this. It's not good for emotional communication...' That doesn't really make a lot of sense in my own case, and I wondered what would happen."

So, he and co-author Alan Dennis put this idea to the test with 72 people, ages 18 to 24, who were hooked up to electrodes that measured their skin conductance and muscle movements as they wrote emails and left voicemails.

"We were really surprised that in the emails, they just put a lot more emotion into it," Wells said. "One thing that I think is a great benefit with email is people can just think about it more carefully. It has this characteristic unlike voicemail where you can edit as you go, and you can rephrase things, like 'Ahh, I didn't want to say it quite like that.'"

The study adds to growing evidence that the Internet age is not turning people cold and emotionless, according to Slate's Amanda Hess. She wrote about Wells' study and others, and said they all give rise to a new narrative about digital communication. She points to work done by communications scholar Hua Su, which focused on young people in Beijing. 

 "The younger people that she's talking to who are using these digital technologies to do this aren't doing it at the expense of talking in person," said Hess. "They're using it as a way to get to the point where they can actually say, 'I love you,' or, 'I have such a crush on you.'"

To listen to the full interview, click on the blue audio player above