Exploring user behaviour of emoticon use among Chinese youth

ABSTRACT

The use of emoticons, particularly on smart mobile devices, has become increasingly popular among young people in recent years. The emoticon is not just a form of information transmission; it also represents a new way of life and a new trend among young people. The aim of this study was to understand the role of emoticons in the daily lives of Chinese young people, investigate how mediated communication has been improved by smart mobile devices and discover users’ preferred types of emoticon. First, a review of the literature on emoticons was conducted to explore the relationship between the evolution of the emoticon and young people’s everyday lives. Next, in-depth interviews were conducted, which yielded novel findings regarding emoticon use. Finally, a questionnaire was used to obtain data on emoticon use for statistical analysis. The findings revealed four key dimensions of emoticon use that were relevant to the research questions: accuracy, sociability, efficiency and enjoyment. These four dimensions help us to better understand the development of emoticons and their influence on the lifestyles of young people. The findings are expected to provide inspiration and suggest directions for improving the design of smart communication.

KEYWORDS:

• Emoticon
• smart communication
• user behaviour

Acknowledgements

We thank the Editor and reviewers of the Journal for their constructive comments for the revision of the paper.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 A townsmen association comprises people from the same home town; its purpose is to facilitate group activities and the sharing of information.

Additional information

Funding

We thank the School of Design and the RIUSD of The Hong Kong Polytechnic University for the research support. The Hong Kong Research Grants Council provided RGC PhD Fellowship. Part of the study was supported by the Art Science Project, The National Social Science Fund of China. The research ‘On Social Actualization of Ecological Design – Based On the Angle of Conservation-Oriented Society’ [Project Batch No. 12CG097] provided project fund for carrying out part of the study. Massachusetts Institute of Technology provided visiting scholarship for the final analysis and preparation of the paper.