Evaluation of the use of emoticons within textual communication

1
Evaluation of the use of emoticons within textual
communication

• Nirmal Morjaria
• 17/04/07

2
Outline

• Introduction
• What is Text Based Communication?
• Problems with Text Based Communication
• What is Emotion?
• Textual communication and emotional
  representation.
• How is emotion expressed in textual
  communication?
• Text based communication and relationship
  formation
• Problems with Emoticons
• Conclusions

3
Introduction

• Advancements in technology have meant that
  communication is becoming increasing indirect
  with email and groupware replacing both face to
  face and voice communications. K Rivera (1996) 
• Communication through these technologies is
  typically text based.

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What is Text Based Communication ?

• The synchronous and asynchronous exchange of
  messages using graphical character representation
  and static images.
• The Internet and other distributed groupware
  technologies are predominantly used for
  communication.
• Email, Instant Messaging, Discussion Boards and
  IRC are all examples of technologies that
  encompass text-based communication and hence
  support social interaction.

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What is Text Based Communication ?

• Instant Messenger and IRC are instances of
  synchronous communication meaning real time
  computer based communication.
• Email and Discussion board are instances of
  asynchronous communication meaning the
  communication is not in real time and passing of
  messages are not instantaneous.

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Problems with Text Based Communication

• Unlike face-to-face communication
• Text based communication is absent of subtle
  voice inflections, gestures and facial
  expressions. Rovers Essen (1995).
• Shared artefacts and visual cues are also not
  available in text.
• One commonly observed problem is the difficulty
  users find to accurately convey their emotions
  during text based conversations. Sanchez et al
  (2005).

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What is Emotion?

• Emotion or Affect is central to human experience,
  and facial expressions are our primary means of
  communicating emotion. Schiano et al (2000).
•  
• (Facial expressions are absent in text-based
  communication.)
•  
• The terms Affect and Emotion are used to
  encompass a spectrum that includes feelings,
  moods and sentiments etc. Axelrod Hone (2005).
•  

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What is Emotion?

• Rosalind Picard (1997) distinguishes between
  inner emotional experiences and the outward
  emotional experiences that people may use to
  convey messages about their emotional states.
• Humans deal with emotion on a continuous basis
  and emotions are intrinsically part of our
  intelligence, part of social interaction and the
  ability to make decisions Damasio (1995).

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What is Emotion?

• Like verbal language, emotional expressions
  relate to the timing and context of their use and
  follow social norms to convey information
• They can be used to add emphasis to what is said
• Add additional information
• Or they can portray a message entirely
  individually without any verbal language.

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Textual communication and emotional
representation

• Loss of direct face to face and voice based
  interactions the communication process is
  altered
• Misunderstandings can occur through textual
  communication!!
• Such misunderstandings may be due, in part, to
  loss of information, including the emotional
  content of the message as indicated by facial
  expressions or voice fluctuations. Rivera et al
  (1996).
• Emotional expressions are masked by
  computer-based technology.

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 How is emotion expressed in textual
communication?

• Synchronous IM programs made available by
  Microsoft and Yahoo provide a range of icons,
  referred to as EMOTICONS.
•  
• Asynchronous technologies such as email and
  discussion, can also encompass emoticons.
•  
• Emotional icons or emoticons are stylised images
  with specific features intended to represent
  emotions. Sanchez et al (1995)
• They do not refer to gender or race and use
  solid colours and clear expressions, as their
  only task is to communicate an emotional state.

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How is emotion expressed in textual communication?

• Users select the emoticon that best portrays
  their emotional state at point of message
  dispatch and intertwine them with the textual
  information to assist with its appropriate
  interpretation.

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Emoticons
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Text based communication and relationship
formation?

• Kraut et al (1998) refers to social relationships
  in terms of strong and weak ties.
•  
• Strong ties are relationships associated with
  frequent contact, deep feelings of affection and
  obligation.
•  
• Weak ties are relationships with superficial and
  easily broken bonds, infrequent contact and
  narrow focus.
•  
• Kraut et al (1998) reports that the relationships
  attainable through the Internet and text based
  communication are generally weak.

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Text based communication and relationship
formation?

• Physical appearance, visual cues and ones ability
  to accurately portray emotion are powerful
  determinants for the formation of strong ties.
• Whilst emoticons can be used to augment
  text-based messages to show emotion, the level of
  portrayal available in Face 2 Face is far richer
  and no way comparable.

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Study Review Rivera et al (1996)

• 23 Participants
•  
• 12 Participants with Emoticons.
•  
• 11 Participants without!
•  
• 6 Emoticons!
• Participants thought they were communicating with
  three other group members, but in fact they were
  speaking to the experimenter

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Study Review Rivera et al (1996)

• Result Users preferred to use the emoticons when
  available. Message length was not affected.
  Decision-making was normal as well.
•  
• However, the focus was affected and people
  tended to respond and focus more upon negative
  emotions in much the same way as face-to-face
  communication.

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Problems with Emoticons

• Emoticons are quick and relatively easy to use,
  and allow users to augment text by adding
  emotion, but there are however problems
•  
• Emoticons cannot portray as much emotion as
  face-to-face communication.
•  
• Emoticons represent a feeling at one instant
  during a discussion, or a reaction to a given
  issue that occurred during a conversation.
•  

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Problems with emoticons

• However... They cannot convey moods or
  sentiments.
•  
• As the conversation of participants progresses
  the emotional state may change or stay the same,
  unless the emoticons are added to each line,
  there is not an explicit indication of such
  states. Sanchez (2005)

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Current Research
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Problems with emoticons

• Current studies have shown that only four
  emoticons account for almost all of the common
  emoticon use online. Kalra et al (2005).
•  
• The most common is the smiley ?.
•  
• This suggests that the amount of emoticons that
  can be widely used without misinterpretation is
  very limited.
• Additionally, different cultures adopt
  alternative representations for the same emotion.
• Because of the small set of universally used
  emoticons... communicating complex emotions can
  be difficult.

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Conclusion

• Conclusions.
•  
• Emoticons provide a quick and easy way to augment
  textual information with visual cues to convey
  basic emotions.
•  
• However, the amount of universally recognised
  emoticons is limited, making it troublesome to
  convey complex emotion.
•  
• Emoticons also do not provide a mechanism to
  portray mood or sentiment over time.