Undergraduate Students’ Perceptions of Emojis in Online Text Messaging Conversations

Emojis are used every day and everywhere, especially in online conversations and social media that are regularly used by the new generation. This study focuses on students’ perceptions towards positive and negative emojis in online text messaging and how different emojis are seen differently by different people. This quantitative research explored the perceptions of emojis among university students in the Academy of Language Studies at University Technology MARA, Shah Alam. Through an online survey with 100 students, it was discovered that students’ gender did not affect their perceptions towards emojis. It was also found that students’ emotional intelligence was not correlated with their perception towards the usage of emojis. Further analysis of the questionnaire domains revealed that students’ perceptions of communication and language proficiency were not associated with the formality and politeness messaging. In other words, language and communication competence in using emojis in text messages does not determine the formality and politeness in the students’ text messaging. The findings of this research paper are important to add more depth into why emojis are used in daily online conversations and ways to understand the different perception towards emojis.

Emojis, Text Messaging, Emotional Intelligence

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