COMMUNICATION PERCEPTION STUDY OF EMOJI’S AND EMOTICONS

Abstract

The growing use of emojis, digital images that can represent a word or feeling, and the fact that they can be strung together to create a sentence with real and full meaning raises the question of whether they are creating a new language amongst technologically savvy youth, or devaluing existing language. Communication between humans is constantly changing and adapting to social trends, lifestyles and more recently technology, and language is recognised as being a living organism. This study will examine the perception of people about the use of emoticon/emoji and also examine whether they know the meaning of emoji’s or misunderstood as communication is complex and the use of emojis can either clarify or confuse the receiver, because they indicate presence of emotion but absence of the individual, due to their digital nature.