Science behind the emoticons

I always feel inexplicable anxiety in public places, in order to force myself to communicate with others, each time I will prepare some interesting topics in advance. I prefer to be in the corner than in public places. If you give me this person to find a corresponding expression, it is estimated that no more appropriate than the following paragraph.

Emoticons are a combination of characters on the keyboard that represent our facial expressions. The emoticons we usually use are evolved from the Japanese style. And I basically use them every time I send a message.

Survey data shows that in just over five months in 2013, people used emoji on Twitter as many as 1.7 billion. What are the reasons behind this frequent use and inertia dependency so that everyone is so keen on them? Simple, because these small symbols make the communication between people more fun and more open.

Emoticons make us better communicators

No one can leave the social groups and exist independently. Once detached, lonely feeling trouble, our physical and mental health will be affected. In life, we subconsciously get the sense of presence from the people around us. Krystal D'Costa of Scientific American, a science magazine in the United States, said: "As a social person, we need to confirm our position in society continuously and frequently, and such confirmation is crucial to the maintenance of our social network - We need the ability to measure social relationships with others. "

In everyday life, face-to-face communication requires not only language but also non-verbal methods such as intonation, gestures, facial expressions and body movements. They help us communicate our feelings more accurately. However, when we interact with people through the Internet or other mobile communication devices, we often do not have face-to-face conditions and the above non-verbal approach loses its meaning. You will not be unfamiliar with all kinds of speech attacks on the Internet? These rhetorical disputes originate from the lack of social cues. (Note: Social cues include mainly Asian languages ​​such as conversational and written languages, intonation and tone, and nonverbal symbols such as expressions, gestures and gestures.)

The following email may reflect the misunderstandings caused by the lack of social cues:

From: Andrea

Sent to: you

Subject: Reply your e-mail

Hi, I know you think it's funny, but it's not funny at all. I feel myself offended.

Andrea

In view of this, you are not some scratching their head, do not know what I want to express what meaning? In fact, I was satirizing you, when writing this e-mail, I can clearly feel the tone of this sentence and cadence But you can not feel it.

When writing e-mail, we tend to overestimate their own ability to express, driven by a strong self, forgetting to consider each other's perception and environment. This result is not satisfied with the sentence, resulting in misunderstanding. If you use emoticons in your email, you can effectively help each other understand the emotions we want to express.

To test how emoticons help us communicate better, the research team selected two groups of people to experiment: they were given tasks that they needed to work together to solve. The only difference is that one of the groups can use 6 emoticons during communication, while the other group can not.

The experimental results show that the group of people allowed to use emoticons can communicate more smoothly during the mission, and they are constantly using emoji to communicate. They believe that these symbols give each other social satisfaction in the communication process.

Emoticons, like the nonverbal implications of face-to-face interactions, also help to reduce ambiguity and enhance or ease our emotional expression.

Improve social cohesion

The premise of good communication is to improve social intimacy. The establishment of social cohesion needs constant communication to obtain each other's personal information. This not only needs to share the side of things with each other, have to share his feelings with him. With the widespread use of social media communication today, emojis helps us become more genuine and free in this sharing process.

The real idea behind emoticons is to convey emotions.

Although most people do not realize that we are mimicking each other's expressions and emotions while meeting people face to face. This is called emotional contagion. This imitation is part of building social connections and helps to increase social cohesion.

You may want to ask: "This will not be able to get in touch with emoticons?" Ah, but really related. The latest survey shows that when we see a particular emoticon, the mood changes. Researchers at Tokyo Denki University found that the more concrete the emoticons are, the more responsive the brain is.

Contrast;) And the following emoji:

You are more sympathetic to the latter, because the reaction of the brain to the latter is more intense, which makes it easier for us to recognize the playful action of blinking. Either ordinary or figurative emoticons are treated by the brain as nonverbal messages. When we see the emoji, the right lower back will be activated, resulting in emotional communication.

Like face-to-face conversations, emoticons on social platforms can also optimize our social relationships and lighten our sense of loneliness in the torrent of times. As they evolve, we will continue to benefit from it.

Maybe I'll never be a hot icon at a party surrounded by noisy crowds, but it's actually nothing. The evolution of online languages ​​also gives me a fuller and more flexible expression of who I am and what I am interested in - at least I do not feel as nervous as I am in real life. Let the emoji fill these vacancies when the language is not enough to convey everything!

Andrea Ayres-Deets is the lead author of ooomf for the mobile application development platform, writing about psychology, creative design and commercial content, the original official blog at ooomf.