This means that they are lightweight in terms of file size, and can be integrated in-line directly with text, unlike regular images or animated GIFs (Pohl et al., 2017). Emoji are small images that are encoded with the same protocol as letters, numbers, and other punctuation and orthographic characters. Informal written communication online has a much-observed problem: Without the additional information provided by tone of voice and body language in face-to-face communication, it is easy for internet users to miss each other's sarcasm, fail to divine humour, and misinterpret a range of emotions (Crystal, 2001 Dresner & Herring, 2010 McCulloch, 2019).Įmoji are one popular solution to this problem, along with emoticons and animated GIFs. Drawing on individual and aggregate examples of emoji used by English speakers, we show that this same range of functions accounts for how people use emoji. In addition to the obvious similarities between certain emoji and certain gestures (e.g., winking, thumbs up), gestures are commonly grouped into subcategories according to how codified their meaning is and how much they are dependant on surrounding speech. But what exactly is the nature of this gap, and how exactly are emoji filling it? We argue that the most insightful explanation for the function of emoji in digital communication comes by drawing comparisons with existing theoretical literature on gesture. Their sharp rise is often explained by noting that it is difficult to convey emotion in writing without tone of voice and body language, and that emoji fill in this gap. Emoji (small coloured images encoded like text) went from unavailable outside Japan in 2010 to active use by 92% of the world's online population in 2016.
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