Priscilla Marino
My research question asked how and why people use graphical and contextual capabilities to convey meaning and emotion through text messaging. Essentially I wanted to understand what types of capabilities we use in text messaging conversations that communicate specific emotions and furthermore eliminate misunderstanding or miscommunication between the two members. I hypothesized that people use graphical capabilities such as emojis to communicate specific emotions (non-ambiguously) in order to eliminate the chance that the message will not be misconstrued or misinterpreted. The research methods I conducted (surveys, interviews, focus groups) all focused on how the use of emojis and capslock lettering can help eliminate the chance of a message being misunderstood by one member. My research questions also focused on why graphical capabilities such as emojis are important for text messaging communication. My research showed me that people associate specific meanings and emotions tied to certain emoji characters. While it can be difficult and common to come across a misunderstanding in a texting conversation, graphical capabilities help us to clear the communication airway between the sender and receiver. Furthermore, the lack of face to face interaction, eye contact and facial expressions makes it difficult to be certain of the emotional response to any given text. Because text messaging has become so popular and an important part of communication behavior and habits, we have learned to create social textiquette or etiquette behind how we choose to communicate any given message. Our goal is to be understood without having to explain ourselves, this is what emojis helps us do.