A Study on the Role of Internet Emoticons in Business Communication from the Perspective of Symbolic Interactionism

Abstract

Emoticons break down the traditional text communication and spread quickly across the Internet, becoming an indispensable network communication tool. They make up for the lack of non-verbal information in Internet communication, dispel the communication gap between the disseminator and the audience. Along with the advancement of information technology, many a business communication has changed from the traditional offline face-to-face communication to the virtual online kind. In daily life, due to the ritualistic, profit-oriented and transactional characteristics of business communication, emoticons in the customer service communication of the e-commerce platform are somewhat different from personal one. This paper selects 4 typical conversation texts from Taobao customer service to support the present case study. According to Mead and Blumer's symbolic interactionism, it analyses the role of emoticons used in business conversations as well as people’s motivations behind. On the basis of analyses, it attempts to summarize the role of emoticons in business communication and the problems existing in emoticons usage. The results demonstrate that emoticons can show professionalism and business etiquette, construct a communicator's business self-image, influence interpersonal mutual understanding so as to improve the accuracy and efficiency of business communication, and enhance group identification. Keywords: role of emoticons, non-verbal expressions, symbolic interactionism, business communication, customer service