Abstract
Expressing emotions in Computer-mediated communication is less social because of the lack of nonverbal cues unlike regular face-to-face communication. The use of emoticons or icons for visualizing emotions may be employed to replicate nonverbal facial expressions in CMC. This present research examined to what extent the use of emoticons (emotion icons) depends on social context (2:task-oriented vs. socio-emotional) and emotional valence (3:positive vs. neutral vs. negative). Participants were asked to type freely messages on mobile prototype with emoticons or without for six different scenarios. Results showed that there is a trend of kind of context. That is, participants used more emoticons in task-oriented than in socio-emotional social contexts. Furthermore, subjects reacted significantly more often with an emoticon in positive valence than in neutral or negative valence. An interaction was found between valence and kind of context. These results seemed in line with the social norms in face-to-face communication. We present implications with a empirical experiment that the use of emoticons in social interaction on the mobile.
Highlights
Rezabek and Cochenour defined emotional icons as “visual cues formed from ordinary typographical symbols that when read sideways represent feelings or emotions (Rezabek & Cochenour 1998).” Early research argued that text based forms of computer mediated communications lose nonverbal cues such as facial expressions, gestures of tone of conversation (Daft and Lengel, 1984)
Twenty-seven university students participated in the experiment. They consisted of 17females and 10males (M = 20, SD = 1.69)
The mobile phone was displayed on the left side of the screen and instructions with scenarios appeared on the right side: Participants were asked to enter text message with emoticon or without individually
Summary
Rezabek and Cochenour defined emotional icons (emoticons) as “visual cues formed from ordinary typographical symbols that when read sideways represent feelings or emotions (Rezabek & Cochenour 1998).” Early research argued that text based forms of computer mediated communications lose nonverbal cues such as facial expressions, gestures of tone of conversation (Daft and Lengel, 1984). Rezabek and Cochenour defined emotional icons (emoticons) as “visual cues formed from ordinary typographical symbols that when read sideways represent feelings or emotions (Rezabek & Cochenour 1998).”. Research argued that text based forms of computer mediated communications lose nonverbal cues such as facial expressions, gestures of tone of conversation (Daft and Lengel, 1984). Recent research argued that using emotional icons (emoticons) could express nonverbal cues missing in CMC (Walther 1992). This study investigated the frequency of emoticon use in CMC depends on social context and emotional valence on text message based on mobile prototype. Ahn (2010) showed the frequency of emoticon use in gender imbalance. H3: It expects that there is an interaction between kind of context and valence
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