A Study of Emoticon Use in Instant Messaging from Smartphone

Instant messaging (IM) has become one of the most popular modes of instantaneous electronic communication mediums throughout the world for users. A unique feature of IM on the smartphone is its choice of text-based, graphical or animated emoticons that express emotion and intentions. Many studies have been conducted on computer mediated communication (CMC), IM and emoticons, but little is known specifically about the study of emoticons in IM on the smartphone. The goal of this study was to understand how emoticons are used in IM on the smartphone and to investigate the inconsistent results of previous research. Thus, this study explored the frequency and variety of emoticon usage as well as the user traits based on emoticon types, relationships between users, availability of computer keyboards, and user emotional states in IM on the smartphone. The corresponding suggestions provided by this study would help to increase the understanding of emoticon usage and the designing of future emoticons in IM on the smartphone. © 2014 Springer International Publishing

The Dark Side of a Smiley

First impressions are heavily influenced by emotional expressions such as smiles. In face-to-face contact, smiling individuals are perceived as warmer and as more competent than nonsmiling individuals. In computer-mediated communication, which is primarily text-based, the “smiley” (☺) constitutes the digital representation of a smile. But is a smiley a suitable replacement for a smile? We conducted three experiments to examine the impact of smiley use on virtual first impressions in work-related contexts. Our findings provide first-time evidence that, contrary to actual smiles, smileys do not increase perceptions of warmth and actually decrease perceptions of competence. Perceptions of low competence in turn undermined information sharing. The adverse effects of smiley use are moderated by the formality of the social context and mediated by perceptions of message appropriateness. These results indicate that a smiley is not a smile. The findings have implications for theorizing on the social functionality of virtual emotional expressions