Everybody loves Emojis! š š
They're fun, short, expressive, and sometimes much easier to use than words.
Nowadays, Emojis are everywhere - not only in text messages and social networks, but also marketing campaigns, brand messages, websites, or on physical items like pillows, keychains or apparel.
The whole world loves Emojis ā¤ļø , and that's not only limited to young adults and heavy internet users (although these are the most frequent Emoji users) but also the "older" generations.
74% of US citizens regularly use Emojis or emoticons in their online communications, sending an average of 96 Emojis per day. This concludes in 6 billion emojis being used around the internet everyday! š²
In 2015, the Oxford English Dictionary even chose the crying-of-laughter-Emoji š (pretty much the most popular one ever) as word of the year - and this already tells you everything you need to know about the current popularity of Emojis.
We use Emojis to express what mere words cannot.
In real-life conversations, we can influence what we're saying by making use of nonverbal communication like facial expressions, hand gestures, or tone of our voice.
That's why we have learned to interpret and use Emojis the same way - as an additional means to express ourselves.
Statistics have even shown that internet slang usage like "rofl", "bae" etc has gone down since most internet users are now replacing them with Emojis. š
Emojis are changing our Brains
In 1982, computer science professor Scott Elliot Fahlman introduced an Emoticon for the very first time - it was of course classic smiley face :-)
The purpose of this set of symbols was to distinguish between jokes and serious topics, and to convey the meaning of your message.
What's interesting is that our brains didn't always recognize :-) as a face.
It's something that people needed to be introduced to and get used to - and it has essentially re-wired our brains.
Nowadays, we have learned to recognize faces even in emoticons just consisting of punctuation - for example: -.- is an annoyed face.
Researchers found out that when we look at an Emoji online, the same parts of our brain are activated as when we're looking at a human face š. Seeing other people use particular Emojis in their messages to us changes our mood, and might even influence our own facial expressions. š
Emoji Usage on Instagram
Almost half of all Instagram captions and comments contain at least one Emoji nowadays! š§
Since Instagram has enabled Emojis as hashtags, we now have a detailed statistic of how often people are actually using specific Emojis online.
What your Emojis say about you
Earlier this year, a study conducted at the Edge Hill University and the Australian Catholic University looked into what Emoji usage says about the user.
They found out quite a lot of interesting connections between Emojis and personalities.
If someone for example generally has no problem expressing his emotions in real life, they also seem to use more Emojis when communicating online, suggesting that extensive Emoji usage is linked to extroversion and naturalness.
People who mostly use positive Emojis and smiley faces š also seem to be more compassionate, kind and polite in real life.
Those who make a lot of unique Emojis like animals or symbols š¦š appear to be more creative, expressive, and have a greater ability to communicate overall.
Internet users who were more aware of others interpreting and analyzing their messages tend to use less sad Emojis š on purpose, to refrain from adding a negative undertone to their message.
If people choose the face laughing with teeth showing š¬ over other laughing Emojis it indicates a more defensive personality, and excessive use of an animal, like an octopus š, seems to be linked to people who have problems relating to others.
At the end of the day, these are all just statistics, but we can probably interpret a lot from our own most used Emojis as well!
Comment below: Which are your favorite / most used Emojis and why ?
Ā© Sirwinchester