Use of Emoji in Pain Level Assessment in Pediatric Dental Patients

USE OF EMOJI IN PAIN LEVEL ASSESSMENT IN PEDIATRIC DENTAL PATIENTS Purpose: The purpose of this study is to determine the efficacy of a pain scale with Emoji images in comparison to the commonly used Wong-Baker FACES® pain scale. Methods: Healthy, English-speaking patients aged 4-17 presenting to the VCU Pediatric Dental clinic and the operating room and presenting to the MCV Pediatric Emergency Room were asked to rate their pain using the Wong-Baker FACES® and Emoji scales. These patients were then asked to select which pain scale they preferred. Results: A total of 151 children were enrolled in the study. The proposed Emoji scale was preferred by 86% of enrolled children (n=151). Children rated their pain the same on the two scales 78% of the time indicating a weak overall agreement between the two scales as defined by Cohen’s Kappa (k=0.5863, 95% CI: 0.47-0.70). In the instances of disagreement, 82% were within one image on the pain scale. There was a roughly even split between which scale corresponded to the higher pain level (56% Wong-Baker was higher and 44% Emoji was rated higher). Conclusions: A majority of the patients surveyed presented with no pain. The Emoji scale showed moderate agreement with the Wong-Baker FACES scale. A majority of the patients preferred the Emoji scale demonstrating the strong communicative utility of Emoji

What’s a threat on social media? How Black and Latino Chicago young men define and navigate threats online

Youth living in violent urban neighborhoods increasingly post messages online from urban street corners. The decline of the digital divide and the proliferation of social media platforms connect youth to peer communities who may share experiences with neighborhood stress and trauma. Social media can also be used for targeted retribution when threats and insults are directed at individuals or groups. Recent research suggests that gang-involved youth may use social media to brag, post fight videos, insult, and threaten—a phenomenon termed Internet banging. In this article, we leverage “code of the digital street” to understand how and in what ways social media facilitates urban-based youth violence. We utilize qualitative interviews from 33 Black and Latino young men who frequent violence prevention programs and live in violent neighborhoods in Chicago. Emerging themes describe how and why online threats are conceptualized on social media. Implications for violence prevention and criminal investigations are discussed

The Nature, Function, and Value of Emojis as Contemporary Tools of Digital Interpersonal Communication

The roles and characteristics of emojis are rapidly expanding within computer-mediated communication spaces, forcing many to acknowledge their seemingly inescapable social influence as tools of digital written communication. These colorful, contemporary icons—which became widely available through a range of global, technical platforms in 2011—convey interpersonal emotional expressions in a much more sophisticated manner than their charming appearance initially indicates. Communicators can learn a great deal about the processes of interpretation that are contributing to the continued and expanding use of emojis. An emoji’s perceived meaning can paradoxically be clear in one instance and ambiguous in another when utilized by individuals as compositional aids in computer-mediated communication spaces. An individual’s ability to make meaning from visual artifacts like emojis is constructed from various intersections of previous experiences, contextual relevance, and discursive rules of language. In addition, societal operations of communication and previous exposure to similar media forms also impact one’s ability to successfully decode various communicative exchanges involving emojis. Using primary research and an emoji survey, this paper further explores the signs, symbolism, and intersections of meaning where signs may differ depending on contextual clues offered by the sender and rules of language and societal discourse, offering another integral point of reference regarding sites of emoji significance. In addition, this paper discusses the value of emojis within computer-mediated communication (CMC) spaces and suggests additional ways emojis reciprocate prior media forms and enhance personal technical communication practices. The value of emojis within non-interpersonal CMC (e.g. advertising practices) is also evaluated; and data is provided related to interpersonal communication shifts that can be expected in the future or that have already occurred since the invention and widespread use of emojis

What’s up, Switzerland? A corpus-based research project in a multilingual country

This paper offers some initial insights into the first large-scale and multilingual corpus of WhatsApp messages for linguistic research and the related research project “What’s up, Swit-zerland?”. Data was gathered in Switzerland in the summer of 2014 and will be made availa-ble to the academic public online at the end of the project (end of 2018). This article presents facts and figures about the corpus and the participants’ demographic data as well as an over-view of (the lack of) existing linguistic research in the field and the research intended in the SNSF-funded research project

COVID-19 and the gendered use of emojis on Twitter: infodemiology study

BACKGROUND: The online discussion around the COVID-19 pandemic is multifaceted, and it is important to examine the different ways by which online users express themselves. Since emojis are used as effective vehicles to convey ideas and sentiments, they can offer important insight into the public's gendered discourses about the pandemic. OBJECTIVE: This study aims at exploring how people of different genders (eg, men, women, and sex and gender minorities) are discussed in relation to COVID-19 through the study of Twitter emojis. METHODS: We collected over 50 million tweets referencing the hashtags #Covid-19 and #Covid19 for a period of more than 2 months in early 2020. Using a mixed method, we extracted three data sets containing tweets that reference men, women, and sexual and gender minorities, and we then analyzed emoji use along each gender category. We identified five major themes in our analysis including morbidity fears, health concerns, employment and financial issues, praise for frontline workers, and unique gendered emoji use. The top 600 emojis were manually classified based on their sentiment, indicating how positive, negative, or neutral each emoji is and studying their use frequencies. RESULTS: The findings indicate that the majority of emojis are overwhelmingly positive in nature along the different genders, but sexual and gender minorities, and to a lesser extent women, are discussed more negatively than men. There were also many differences alongside discourses of men, women, and gender minorities when certain topics were discussed, such as death, financial and employment matters, gratitude, and health care, and several unique gendered emojis were used to express specific issues like community support. CONCLUSIONS: Emoji research can shed light on the gendered impacts of COVID-19, offering researchers an important source of information on health crises as they happen in real time

With or without emoji?: impact of the use of emojis on online service booking on consumer perception

With the evolution of technology, we are currently experiencing a period in which communication is often mediated by computers (CMC). In addition to using this mode of communication between friends and colleagues, there are many pages and more and more services and brands to evolve into social networks. For example, there is even and the possibility of booking services through these methods (Facebook chat). With these new forms of communication existed, the language also changes. There was thus a need to adapt this new way of communicating the need to include non-verbal cues that are common in face-to-face communication (F2F). This is how emoticons and emoji came about. We carried out an experimental study to investigate how the use of emoji can influence consumers' perception of online services (Facebook chat) and restaurant. Participants (N = 200, 74% female) were exposed to a fictitious scenario that represented a negative or positive message (e.g., reservation request refused vs. accepted) and which included or not emoji was distinct in the presence or absence of emoji and in the valence of the message congruent with this message. The results indicate that the emoji exert influence in the perception of the consumers about the service and the restaurant, at several levels such as: the perception of modernity, the language used and the warmth. These evidences denote importance for the psychology of the consumer, because they indicate how much emoji can influence the consumer to have different perceptions about services used and brands.Com o evoluir da tecnologia, vivemos atualmente um período em que a comunicação é frequentemente mediada por computadores (CMC). Para além de usarmos este modo de comunicação entre amigos e colegas, há cada vez mais serviços e marcas a evoluir para as redes sociais. Por exemplo, existe inclusivamente a possibilidade de marcação de serviços através destes métodos (chat do Facebook). Com estas novas formas de comunicar existiu a necessidade de incluir pistas não verbais que são comuns na comunicação face-a-face (F2F). Assim surgiram os emoticons e os emojis. Realizamos um estudo experimental para investigar como a utilização de emojis pode influenciar a perceção que o consumidor tem da marcação de serviços online (chat do Facebook) e do restaurante. Os participantes (N = 200 ,74% sexo feminino) foram expostos a um cenário fictício que representava uma mensagem negativa ou positiva (i.e., pedido de reserva recusado vs. aceite) e que incluía ou não emoji congruente com essa mensagem. Os resultados indicam que os emojis exercem influência na perceção dos consumidores sobre o serviço e sobre o restaurante, a vários níveis como: na perceção da modernidade, na linguagem utilizada e na hospitalidade. Estas evidências denotam importância para a psicologia do consumidor, porque indicam o quanto os emojis podem influenciar o consumidor a ter perceções diferente sobre os serviços utilizados e as marcas

Potential of using visual imagery to revolutionise measurement of emotional health

Appropriate measurement of emotional health by all those working with children and young people is an increasing focus for professional practice. Most of the tools used for assessment or self-assessment of emotional health were designed in the mid-20th century using language and technology derived from pen and paper written texts. But, are they fit for purpose in an age of pervasive computing with increasingly rich audio-visual media devices being in the hands of young people? This thought piece explores how the increased use of visual imagery, especially forms that can be viewed or created on digital devices might provide a way forward for more effective measuring of emotional health; including smiley faces, other emojis and other potential forms of visual imagery. The authors bring together perspectives from healthcare, counselling, youth advocacy, academic research, primary care and school based mental health support to explore these issues