Putting our emotions into words might be challenging at times. Knowing our feelings and the reasons behind them is difficult enough without having to explain them to a person. World Emoji Day celebrates the creative and expressive power of messages emoji, but it’s important to consider how these digital symbols impact our psycho-emotional health.
Positive Effects of Emojis on Our Emotional Health
Even though they appear to be rather benign, those wink smileys, smiling faces, and earth emojis have the ability to lift your spirits. They convey our emotions to others, much as a simple shrug or frown, which facilitates better communication and lessens our emotional responsibilities.
Emojis can help you add an emotional layer to your message and they can also help the person receiving your text understand your mental state without even having to ask. For example, placing a globe emoji next to the statement “I’m on my dream vacation” or placing a tiny image of a new teary eyed emoji after the statement “I absolutely killed the speech” can help the recipient.
Emojis offer the nonverbal cues that allow us to clarify and improve what we mean when we speak.
Emoji usage is rapidly increasing, according to research, with over 92 percent of internet users worldwide routinely using them. The use of negative emoji has increased marginally over the past two years, showing a community that is becoming slightly more at ease with expressing negative emotions, even though a staggering 31% of all emoji sent are expressions of joy.
There are countless uses of emojis but here are some of the most popular ones:
- To inject humor or sarcasm in order to lighten the mood.
- To soften the blow.
- To discover a more convenient means of expression.
- To speak when words are inadequate.
Can Emojis Also Have a Negative Impact on Our Emotional Health?
Some people think that despite the convenience that emojis offer, its users risk getting into trouble while using them. After all, the reader’s interpretation of an emoji may be completely different from or lost on the meaning that one individual assigns to it.
Emojis’ ambiguity can result in unintended miscommunications, especially when two parties are unfamiliar with one another.
Another theory holds that key components of human communication have been lost as a result of using text messages, emojis, and other electronic means of communication. Verbal communication that takes place in a face-to-face interaction can have its meaning influenced by the speaker’s tone of voice. The recipient’s understanding of a sentence can be dramatically altered by intonation, volume, and the emphasis placed on specific words.
Even non-verbal cues, such as body language, have the power to change or strengthen a person’s message. While uninterested body language may discourage one party from extending a conversation with the other, confident arm and hand motions can help to portray an assertiveness that may urge the listener to follow instructions. Emojis, on the other hand, just make the expressing of emotions more accessible and concise.
Do Emojis Improve Our Psycho-Emotional Health?
Emojis are a strongly contested topic that has been the focus of numerous studies. It is unclear if they help in improving our emotional well-being or stifle our ability to express ourselves. On the one hand, using symbols that have a common meaning allows us to express our feelings without having to use complicated sentences.
Emojis, which are typically understood to have the same meaning by all parties, can aid in reducing the ambiguity of a message’s meaning. A study of high school students and their use of emojis found that they can help reinforce the meaning of a remark. Emojis have been shown to help express the “intensity” of textual messages when used in conjunction with it, according to research.
However, there are downsides of using emojis to express emotions. A limited selection of emojis limits the range of emotions we may express and prevents us from expressing the finer nuances or intensities of emotion that we feel. For instance, Facebook’s “reactions” feature limits user responses to only one of six emotional emojis, providing a rich but insufficient portrayal of emotions.
Emojis also minimize the need to gain the textual abilities required to express oneself in the absence of such abbreviated forms of communication.
Conclusion
Emojis don’t have labels, therefore whoever uses them decides what they mean. However, they are typically understood in context because they usually convey a simple notion or emotion. They help in increasing the clarity and tonality of our communication, which may enhance our emotional well-being.
