World Emoji Day: One man’s joy, another man’s confusion

Almost everyone uses emojis to express or evoke emotions in text messages. According to a survey by industry association Bitkom on World Emoji Day, 80 percent of people in Germany use emojis. Emojis help 51 percent of men surveyed express themselves better, but only 43 percent of women. 46 percent of those surveyed were annoyed when they only received an emoji in response. Emojis are used most often (98 percent) in private chats; only less than 30 percent use them in a professional context with colleagues.

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Unmanageable numbers

Over the years, more and more emojis have been added – the current ones are louder Unicode Consortium 3782 pieces — so that leaves 15 percent of those surveyed thinking there are too many emojis.

Meanwhile, emojis can also make communication more difficult – and not just because of the number. Sometimes there are misinterpretations, so they can be… According to the survey The conversation has already caused confusion for 56 percent of those surveyed, and even 73 percent for the 16 to 29 year old group.

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Example misunderstanding

There can be several reasons for misinterpretations: Emojis are highly context-dependent. The “eye emoji” 👀 can appear curious, suspicious or thoughtful depending on the context. The complexity of human emotions is hard to convey with individual emojis. For example, emotions such as sadness or nostalgia are difficult to convey, and even a combination such as 😊😢 is often inadequate. There is a tendency to overinterpret. A “thoughtful face” 🤔 can mean simple thinking or doubt.

Emojis do not completely replace non-verbal cues. Subtle irony, often represented by a “winky face” 😉, is not always properly understood. Sarcasm or sarcasm is particularly difficult to convey. A “smiling face” 😂 after a sarcastic comment can be misunderstood if the recipient does not recognize the sarcasm.

Cultural differences also present challenges when interpreting emojis. The “thumbs up” 👍 is positive in Western cultures, but can be offensive in parts of the Middle East and West Africa. The “OK hand sign” 👌 is considered obscene in some cultures.

Technical constraints arise from different displays on different devices. The “smiling face with sweat drops” 😅 can be interpreted as embarrassed or nervous on one device, and happy or relieved on another. Generational differences also affect the meaning of emojis. The “crying face” 😭 can be understood ironically by young people, but literally by older people. Sometimes people feel insulted by emojis, as in the case of a student who asked Apple to modify the “nerd picrogram”.

The subject of linguistics

The rapid spread of colorful pictograms and their introduction into everyday communication has brought to the fore not only cinema but also linguists. For example, they used WhatsApp corpora to investigate the meaning and interpretation of emoticons and emojis in different contexts, their distribution, the evolution of emojis and changes in meaning. Scientists are also debating whether emojis are symbols could become a universal language,

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