Personalizing Emoji Meaning and Use in Digital Communication
Anita Buczek-Zawiła
Uniwersytet Komisji Edukacji Narodowej w Krakowiehttps://orcid.org/0000-0002-4179-0219
Abstract
Communication via digital media is characterized by growing use of graphic elements employed to convey emotions and concepts in a succinct form, especially in interpersonal interactions. Emoji are naturally ambiguous in meaning, which undergoes various modifications. One way of incorporating emoji into interpersonal communication is repurposing their meaning and use, so that a shared personal meaning develops between individual users or within small groups. The article explores novel and unique applications of certain emoji in an independent (conceptual) replication study of Wiseman and Gould’s work (2018). The present study analyzes the data obtained via a web-based survey in a group of 132 respondents aged 17 to 55+ to subsequently get to know their motivations behind the repurposed use of emoji. It is demonstrated how this adaptation of graphic icons helps people express their likes and preferences, romantic feelings, amusement, and, as a result, can aid users in building closer relationships in micro-communities. In essence, the article is intended to contribute to a better understanding of emoji use in multimodal interpersonal communication.
Keywords:
emoji, repurposing meaning and use, text tone analysis, interpersonal communicationReferences
Aldunate N., González-Ibáñez R. (2017): An Integrated Review of Emoticons in Computer-Mediated Communication. „Frontiers in Psychology” 7, pp. 1–6.
Crossref
Google Scholar
Bai Q., Dan Q., Mu Z., Yang M. (2019): A Systematic Review of Emoji: Current Research and Future Perspectives. „Frontiers in Psychology” 10, pp. 1–16.
Crossref
Google Scholar
Bhunjun A. (2018): What do the aubergine and peach emoji mean? , accessed:12.02.2022. Google Scholar
Butterworth S.E., Giuliano T., White J., Cantu L. (2019): Sender Gender Influences Emoji Interpretation in Text Messages. „Frontiers in Psychology” 10(784), pp. 1–5.
Crossref
Google Scholar
Dressner E., Herring S.C. (2010): Functions of the Nonverbal in CMC: Emoticons and Illocutionary Force. „Communication Theory” 20, pp. 249–268.
Crossref
Google Scholar
Garrison A., Remley D., Thomas P., Wierszewski E. (2011): Conventional Faces: Emoticons in Instant Messaging Discourse. „Computers and Composition” 28, pp. 112–125.
Crossref
Google Scholar
Guntuku S.C., Li M., Tay L., Ungar L. (2019): Studying Cultural Differences in Emoji Usage across the East and the West. [In:] Proceedings of the Thirteenth International AAAI Conference on Web and Social Media, pp. 226–234,
Crossref
Google Scholar
ICWSM/article/view/3224>, accessed: 12.10.2023. Google Scholar
Kelly R., Watts L.A. (2015): Characterising the inventive appropriation of emoji as relationally meaningful in mediated close personal relationships. Paper presented at Experiences of Technology Appropriation: Unanticipated Users, Usage, Circumstances, and Design. Google Scholar
Oslo, Norway. Google Scholar
Koch T.T., Romero P., Stachl C. (2022): Age and gender in language, emoji, and emoticon usage in instant messages. „Computers in Human Behaviour” 126, pp. 1–12.
Crossref
Google Scholar
Li L., Yang Y. (2018): Pragmatic functions of emoji in internet-based communication – a corpus based study. „Asian-Pacific Journal of Second and Foreign Language Education” 3, pp. 1–12.
Crossref
Google Scholar
Liu S., Sun R. (2020): To Express or to End? Personality Traits are Associated with the reasons and Patterns of Using Emoji and Stickers. „Frontiers in Psychology” 11, pp. 1–11.
Crossref
Google Scholar
Oleszkiewicz A., Karwowski M., Pisanski K., Sorokowski P., Sobrado B., Sorokowska A. (2017): Who uses emoticons? Data from 86702 Facebook users. „Personality and Individual Differences” 119, pp. 289–295.
Crossref
Google Scholar
Pang B., Lee L. (2008): Opinion mining and sentiment analysis. „Foundations and Trends in Information Retrieval” 2(1–2), pp. 1–135.
Crossref
Google Scholar
Peels R. (2019): Replicability and replication in the humanities. „Research Integrity and Peer Review” 4, 2, , accessed: 10.12.2021.
Crossref
Google Scholar
Prada M., Rodrigues D., Garrido M., Lopes D., Cavalheiro B., Gaspar R. (2018): Motives, frequency and attitudes toward emoji and emoticon use. „Telematics and Informatics” 35, pp. 1925–1934.
Crossref
Google Scholar
Riordan M.A. (2017): Emojis as Tools for Emotion Work: Communicating Affect in Text Messages. „Journal of Language and Social Psychology” 36, pp. 549–567.
Crossref
Google Scholar
Skovholt K., Grønning A., Kankaanranta A. (2014): The Communicative Functions of Emoticons in Workplace E-Mails: :-). „Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication” 19, pp. 780–797.
Crossref
Google Scholar
Thomson D., Filik R. (2016): Sarcasm in Written Communication: Emoticons are Efficient Markers of Intention. „Journal of Computer-Mediated Communication” 21, pp. 105–120.
Crossref
Google Scholar
Togans L.C.J.J., Holtgraves T., Kwon G., Morales Zelaya T.E. (2021): Digitally saving face: An experimental investigation of cross-cultural differences in the use of emoticons and emoji. „Journal of Pragmatics” 186, pp. 277–288.
Crossref
Google Scholar
Völkel S.T., Buschek D., Pranjic J., Hussmann H. (2019): Understanding Emoji Interpretation through User Personality and Message Context. [In:] MobileHCI ’19: Proceddings of the 21st International Conference on Human-Computer Interaction with Mobile Devices and Services. 3, pp.1–12, , accessed: 10.12.2021.
Crossref
Google Scholar
Walther J.B. (2011): Theories of computer-mediated communication and interpersonal relations. [In:] The SAGE Handbook of Interpersonal Communication. M.L. Knapp & J.A. Daly (eds). Los Angeles, pp. 443–479. Google Scholar
Wang W., Zhao Y., Qiu L., Zhu Y. (2014): Effects of Emoticons on the Acceptance of Negative Feedback in Computer Mediated Communication. „Journal of the Association for Information Systems” 15, pp. 454–483.
Crossref
Google Scholar
Wiseman S., Gould S.J. (2018): Repurposing emoji for personalised communication: Why [pizza slice] means ‘I love you’. [In:] Proceedings of the 2018 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems. 152, pp. 1–10, , accessed: 09.12.2021.
Crossref
Google Scholar
Uniwersytet Komisji Edukacji Narodowej w Krakowie
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4179-0219