Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) is any form of communication between two or more individual people who interact and/or influence each other via separate computers through the Internet or a network connection - using social software. CMC does not include the methods by which two computers communicate, but rather how people communicate using computers. It is only peripherally concerned with any common work product created.

Linguists study CMC to observe how language is used in computer-mediated settings (online discourse environments). This includes such paralinguistic features as emoticons; pragmatic rules like turn taking; and specialised registers or sets of terminology specific to these environments (see Leet). This does not focus on common work products or other "collaboration" but rather on "meeting" itself, on such human problems as lying and blaming, and on other trust questions: how computer mediation changes the character or emotional consequences of meetings or relationships.