Emoji use in online communication with emerging adults: The impact on ambiguity, affect, and social connection
Date
2022-08
Authors
Losby, Madelyne Mae
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Advisor
Marsee, Monica
Vogel, David L
Costabile, Kristi
Meissner, Christian
Wei, Meifen
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Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent social distancing guidelines has had a great impact on society. Emerging adults (ages 18-29) specifically are struggling as their need for social connection is critical to their mental health. However, the lack of nonverbal cues in electronically mediated communication (EMC) makes maintaining relationships online more difficult. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic, our online communication has been advancing, so that some nonverbal cues, such as gestures and facial expressions, can be replicated in text conversations through emojis. Specifically, this study examined the role of emojis in providing emotional cues to reduce ambiguity, enhance positive affect, decrease negative affect, and increase feelings of social connectedness. Four separate ANCOVAs were conducted in order to explore the differences between emojis conditions (positive, negative, neutral, and no emojis) on the outcome variables while including current levels of psychological distress as a covariate. For each of the four models, there was at least one emoji condition that was statistically different than the others, suggesting that the inclusion of emojis had a significant impact on perceived ambiguity, changes in positive and negative affect, and feelings of connectedness. Additional pairwise t-tests demonstrated that the ambiguous text message was the clearest when it was accompanied by a positive emoji, when compared to both the negative and neutral emoji condition. The statements with a positive emoji, instead of no emoji, contributed to less of a decrease in positive affect. Additionally, the addition of each emoji had a unique impact on negative affect. Furthermore, positive emojis, when added to an ambiguous text message, contributed the most to feelings of connectedness when compared to the negative emoji, the neutral emoji, and no emoji conditions. Limitations and future directions are also discussed.
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dissertation