Influence of Emojis and Emoticons in Enhancing Digital Interpersonal Communication: A Study of WhatsApp Application Users

Journal of Media Studies, Vol 37, No 2 (2022)

Influence of Emojis and Emoticons in Enhancing Digital Interpersonal Communication: A Study of WhatsApp Application Users

Fatima Zehra, Muhammad Suleman, Ermma Malik

Abstract

This research intends to focus on the influence of emojis and emoticons in enhancing digital interpersonal communication of WhatsApp application users. The study is supported in the light of Media Richness Theory and survey method has also conducted as part of quantitative research design. A total of 200 students from different universities of Lahore have been selected to understand the impact of emojis and emoticons in their interpersonal communication on daily basis. The findings show that emojis and emoticons enhance digital interpersonal communication as it fulfills the criteria of conveying facial expressions, personal emotions and variety of sign languages. Findings of the survey illustrated that an emoji helps in supporting a message's meaning. Sometimes, emojis and emoticons seem more effective and easy to respond on a matter instead of writing long texts. The study also demonstrated that emojis and emoticons also help in understanding other person's mood and the level of interest during digital interpersonal communication.

References

Bliss-Carroll, N. (2016). The Nature, Function, and Value of Emojis as Contemporary Tools of Digital Interpersonal Communication (Masters). Gardner-Webb University.

Chao, S., Jiang, J., Hsu, C., Chiang, Y., Ng, E., & Fang, W. (2020). Technology-Enhanced Learning for Graduate Students: Exploring the Correlation of Media Richness and Creativity of Computer-Mediated Communication and Face-to-Face Communication. Applied Sciences, 10(5), 1602. doi: https://doi.org/10.3390/app10051602

Chairunnisa, S., & A.S., B. (2017). Analysis of Emoji and Emoticon Usage in Interpersonal Communication of Blackberry Messenger and WhatsApp Application User. International Journal Of Social Sciences And Management, 4(2), 120-126. doi: 10.3126/ijssm.v4i2.17173

Filik, R., Țurcan, A., Thompson, D., Harvey, N., Davies, H., & Turner, A. (2016). Sarcasm and emoticons: Comprehension and emotional impact. Quarterly Journal Of Experimental Psychology, 69(11), 2130-2146. doi: 10.1080/17470218.2015.1106566

Hasan, A. (2018). The Role of Emojis and Emoticons in Enhancing Interpersonal Communication through Messenger and WhatsApp Applications, 115-130.

Kralj Novak, P., Smailović, J., Sluban, B., & Mozetič, I. (2015). Sentiment of Emojis. PLOS ONE, 10(12), e0144296. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0144296

Ljubesic, N., & Fiser, D. (2019). A Global Analysis of Emoji Usage. Proceedings Of The 10Th Web As Corpus Workshop, 82-89.

Media Richness Theory. (2019). Retrieved 27 January 2021, from https://www.communicationtheory.org/media-richness-theory/

Park, T., Kim, S., & Lee, G. (2019). A Study of Emoticon Use in Instant Messaging from Smartphone (pp. 155-165). Drivers for the Actual Usage of Cloud Services: An Examination of Influencing Factors for Digital Natives.

Racoma, B. (2018). How Emojis are Perceived Differently by Different Cultures. Retrieved 27 January 2021, from https://www.daytranslations.com/blog/emojis-amongst-cultures/

Skovholt, K., Grønning, A., & Kankaanranta, A. (2014). The Communicative Functions of Emoticons in Workplace E-Mails: :-). Journal Of Computer-Mediated Communication, 19(4), 780-797. doi: 10.1111/jcc4.12063

Suresh, S. (2018). The influence of Emoji on Communication using Social Media-A Quantitative Study among College Students of Mysuru. Research Journal Of Humanities And Social Sciences, 9(1), 158. doi: 10.5958/2321-5828.2018.00028.1

(Ted) Luor, T., Wu, L., Lu, H., & Tao, Y. (2010). The effect of emoticons in simplex and complex task-oriented communication: An empirical study of instant messaging. Computers In Human Behavior, 26(5), 889-895. doi: 10.1016/j.chb.2010.02.003

Full Text: PDF

Refbacks

There are currently no refbacks.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Institute of Communication Studies
University of the Punjab, Quaid-e-Azam Campus, Lahore - 54590, Pakistan.

E-Mail : ed.jms.ics@gmail.com

Phone No. : 92-42-99231225