Emoticons, not as universal as they seem!

A new study was recently published
concerningthe use of emoticons and their perception. She has
allowed to measure only depending on the platforms (Apple, Microsoft, Google, Samsung,
Twitter, Facebook, etc.), an emoticon with the same Unicode encoding
is not displayed with quite the same symbol. So,
the study shows that the same emoticon can be perceived more negatively on a
machine than on another, enough to createfunny
misunderstandingsduring a text conversation between machines using
different OS:

The research groupGroupLens from the University of
Minnesotais at the origin of this study on new means of
communications and social interactions. As part of this project,
subjects were given the task of rating22 emoticons
anthropomorphic (translating a human expression) on a scale of -5,
for a very negative impression, at +5, for a very positive impression.

And the emoticon with clenched teeth and "m" eyes knewthe
greatest disparity in judgment depending on the platform. While on
Apple, the emoticon is rated at around -1 on average, on Google, it is at
+5 !

This difference in interpretation is more or less high depending on
the emoticon. Other emoticons with significant differences in interpretation
are notably those with watery eyes and big tears, and
those with the big smile and the "hook" eyes (the first on the
table below:

All emoticons combined, the study highlights aaverage degree of
difference in interpretation of 2.04 between platforms, which means
that a smiley used on iOS and sent to Android may not be
perceived in the same way.

And when we know that emoticons arevery widely
usedin text messaging, this way of communicating
representing even 50% of the characters used in discussions on
Instagram, it is better to be sure of the meaning of your emoticon and
its interpretation on other platforms before using it.

In the meantime, this study highlights the usefulness of setting up a
universal emoticon system, especially since these little faces can
easily be updated (as is regularly the case with iOS).

Source

Editor-in-chief for iPhon.fr. Pierre is like Indiana Jones, looking for the lost iOS trick. Also a long-time Mac user, Apple devices hold no secrets for him. Contact: pierre[a]iphon.fr.