Emojis and self-expression

Abstract

Emojis are pictograms which are used extensively in chat conversations and online posts. Before emojis were invented, people used to use emoticons. The list of emojis has grown greatly since the first set came out. It does not only consist of facial expressions but other things like symbols, animals, food products and flags. They have been considered a way to aid emotional communication through text. However, it is evident that sometimes this might not be the case and emojis could be misinterpreted. The aim of this study has been to research why emojis are misinterpreted and how the same emoji may be interpreted differently by different people. In an attempt to understand how emojis are interpreted, a qualitative method has been chosen for data collection. Four focus groups with young adults who were enrolled at the University of Malta were conducted. The data gathered from the focus groups has been analysed using thematic analysis (Braun & Clarke, 2006). The findings of this study have indicated that there are factors which might impact one’s attitudes towards the understanding of an emoji. Some of these factors include how close the relationship is between the sender and receiver, the age, how novel the individual is to technology, and what is trending at the time. However, despite these factors which may lead to message misinterpretation, participants still stated that emojis aid self-expression.