Interpretation of emoticon

Nowadays, instant messaging services have become part of our life. The creation of emoticons is commonly used by computer mediated communication users. Emoticons are symbols which are known as proxies to replace our facial expressions. But are they universally recognised? We have to be clear that, internet crosses cultural boundaries. It reaches different countries and people. As stated by John Timmer (2007), different cultures interpret things differently, thus emoticons cannot be recognised universally as they carry cultural baggage.

Popular emoticons used by online community

Timmer (2007) compares the smiley used in Japan and US. In Japan, where emotional subduction is the norm, they emphasise more on the eyes than the mouth of the emoticons ^_^. Whereas for the American, where the clear emotional expression is the norm, they focus more on the mouth while interpreting the emoticons as it is more expressive :). It is also said that, it is impolite for Japanese women to show their teeth while smiling (DeVito 2002). Sometimes joking remarks which mistaken by the receiver as serious statement may cause big problems. (Adler & Rodman 2000, pg. 147) Thus, we may accidentally offend someone who misunderstands the meaning of your emoticon due to the cultural or gender differences. ‘Particular cultures provide particular trainings for readers’ (Kress & Van Leeuwen, 1998, p.201). Readers employ their cultural backgrounds and knowledge in the process of making meaning of the emoticons. So, emoticons are not always helpful, but fearful sometimes, that is when it causes conflicts between cultures. For personal experience, sometimes, while having an online chat with friends, the overloaded emoticons that appear in one sentence will not only strain our eyes but may also cause confusion and perhaps misinterpretion of the real meaning behind the sentence.

Yahoo is now sponsoring a student competition for ‘innovation in technology-assisted, person-to-person communication’, known as the Smiley Award (Rifkind 2007). They think that the existence of emoticons can provide betterment in communication. Schirato and Yell (1996) mentions that, ‘All texts, including jokes and riddles, carry elements, or traces, of context with them.’ The elements carry by the texts help to interpret more accurately than emoticons can do. There is not only one set of meaning for a emoticon as people may interpret it differently. Words are better tools to convey humour or emotions (Rifkind 2007), not necessarily emoticons.



References

Adler, RB & Rodman, G 2000, Understanding Human Communication, 7th edn. , Harcourt College Publishers, United States of America, pg. 147.

DeVito, JA 2002, Human Communication, 9th edn, Pearson, Boston, pg. 138.

Kress, G & van Leeuwen, T 1998, ‘Front pages: (the critical) analysis of newspaper layout’, in Bell, A & Garrett, P (eds) 1998, Approaches to media discourse, Blackwell, Oxford, chapter 7, pp. 186-219.

Schirato, T & Yell, S 1996, Communication and cultural literacy: An introduction, Allen and Unwin, St. Leonards NSW, pp. 110.

Timmer, J 2007, Emoticons carry cultural baggage, viewed on 31 October 2007,
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070514-emoticons-carry-cultural-baggage.html

Rifkind, H 2007, Is the emoticon something to be celebrated?, viewed on 31 October 2007, http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article2482425.ece