More Than Just a Symbol: A Qualitative Study on the Use of Emojis in Message Interpretation in Social Media Communication

Abstract

An emoji is “a digital image that is added to electronic communication to express a particular idea or feeling,” as it was defined in the Cambridge dictionary (2018). Emojis have been used to convey one’s emotion in the virtual interaction of people. It can be likely compared to face-to-face conversations in such a way that these emojis act as the “mask” of one’s expression involved in the conversation. These virtual depictions of human emotions through these images give more meaning to messages, but, as the general nature of communication, there could be misunderstandings. On the other hand, the exclusion of emojis may result in the lack of meaning in a message or the difficulty in a message’s interpretation. The qualitative interviews were conducted in St. Mary’s College, Quezon City campus from September 19-28, 2018. This study involved fifteen (15) participants from the Junior High School students (Grade 7 –Grade 10). A. Reasons for Social Media Use: Their reasons of social media use are for social updates and as an outlet for their self-expression. It helps them release their thoughts and opinions about a particular issue. In addition, some students tend to use social media for educational and (like searching for home works and monitoring requirement’s deadline) and entertainment purposes. B. Reasons for the Use of Emojis: Junior high school students used emojis to either fully express their emotions or to enhance the emotion in the message. It is also used for substituting written text for they are more convenient and quicker. Another reason is to avoid misinterpretation and clarify meaning. The students also stated that emojis make the conversation more lively, interactive, and adds a “punch” to their message. C. Adverse Effects of Using An Emoji: Emojis may suggest multiple meanings and is not always accurate to the real emotion of the message. Also, students involved in the study tend to use emojis as a cover-up of what they feel in order to either avoid conflict/s or to intentionally withhold their emotions. D. Particular Emoji Selection and Preferences: Students think that a certain emoji they have used from time to time slowly becomes their “signature emoji.” They also choose an emoji based on the emotion of the conversation. They try to match the emoji that they have selected to the denotative ambiance felt during the conversation (i.e., joking). E. Interpretations of Messages without Emojis: The students think that whenever an emoji is not present alongside a message, there may be a conflict between sender and receiver or the sender is suffering a personal problem. Without emojis, there isn’t anything concrete that suggests the message’s emotion thus leading the students to assume the emotion behind the message. The researchers found that Junior High School students acknowledge the presence of emojis, most especially in times where they feel the need to understand and comprehend the emotion of a text to fully understand its meaning. Emojis essentially become the very tool Junior High School students use a basis for understanding a text as a whole. To those who wish to pursue this kind of study, the researchers recommend the expertise of a linguist or a semiologist who can provide the information needed for triangulation and comparison of outcomes and results. The researchers also recommend adding the comparison of different generations on how they interpret messages with or without emojis.